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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Purchased  by  the  Hamill  Missionary  Fund. 


DS  508  . C7 8 1914 
Cooper,  Clayton  Sedgwick, 
1869-1936 . 

The  modernizing  of  the 

Or  i P_nt 


THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/modernizingoforiOOcoop 


A manual-training  class  in  the  government  industrial  school  in  Mandalay 


The 

Modernizing  of  the  Orien 


By 


/ 


CLAYTON  SEDGWICK  COOPER 

Author  or  “The  Man  or  Egypt,”  “Why  Go  to  College,”  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

McBRIDE,  NAST  & COMPANY 
1914 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
McBride,  Nast  & Co. 


Published  October,  1914 


“As  in  water,  face  answereth  to  face, 
So  the  heart  of  man  to  man.” 

To 

JAMES  HUBERT  GROVER 
My  friend. 


PREFACE 


The  East  has  at  last  met  the  West  face  to  face. 
What  has  been  the  character  of  that  meeting! 
What  have  been  the  results  of  the  mingling  of  these 
two  opposite  and  distinct  sets  of  people  with  their 
antipodal  points  of  view  and  methods?  Is  the  East 
becoming  West?  What  is  happening?  These  have 
been  the  writer’s  questions  upon  two  journeys  around 
the  world  in  which  many  unusual  privileges  have 
been  afforded  for  first-hand  contact  with  a large 
variety  of  institutions  and  native  populations. 

It  is  hoped  that  what  is  here  set  forth  may  be  the 
means  of  inducing  clearer  ideas  and  further  study 
concerning  those  people  who  embrace  more  than 
one-half  the  population  of  the  globe,  and  who,  for  ob- 
vious reasons,  are  now  becoming  the  center  of  inter- 
national, commercial  and  racial  interests. 

Riverdale-on-Hudson, 

New  York  City,  June  1,  1914. 

C.  S.  C. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEB  PAGE 

Preface vii 

I  New  Dreams  in  the  Orient 3 

II  The  Hillmen  of  North  Africa  ....  14 

III  Old  Egypt  in  Training 24 

IV  Reforms  in  Egyptian  Education  ...  44 

V  Under  a Modern  Bedouin  Tent  ....  65 

VI  “As  Far  as  the  East  is  from  the  West”  . 77 

VII  Changing  Social  Order  in  India  ....  91 

VIII  Glimpses  of  Old  Hyderabad 106 

IX  The  Gaekwar  of  Baroda,  Progressive  . . 121 

X  Through  an  Indian  Jungle 133 

XI  Student  Life  in  India 150 

XII  Indian  Industry  and  Economics  . . . 164 

XIII  Religious  Transformation 186 

XIV  Romantic  and  Buddhist  Burma  ....  206 

XV  China  in  the  Crucible 225 

XVI  Along  the  Canals  in  China 232 

XVII  Young  China  and  Education 247 

XVIII  Modernizing  the  Filipinos 254 

XIX  In  the  Real  Japan 269 

XX  The  Spirit  of  Education  in  the  Sunrise 

Kingdom 292 

XXI  Characteristics  of  Young  Japan  . . . 304 

XXII  Can  the  Orient  Be  Modernized?  . . . 330 

Index 347 


THE  ILLUSTRATIONS 


A manual  training  class  in  Mandalay  . . . Frontispiece 

FACING 

PAGE 

A Sake  shop  in  Tokyo,  Japan 4 

Moving  picture  theater,  Tokyo 5 

Natives  of  Kabylia 16 

Picturesque  Kabyle  costumes 17 

Arab  children  at  school  in  Egypt 28 

Loading  a Nile  steamer 29 

At  a monastery  school  in  Mandalay 50 

Coffee-house  in  Kabylia 51 

Veiled  Mohammedan  women 78 

Ladies  of  the  Harem  out  for  a ride 79 

At  a mission  school  in  India 92 

Teaching  the  Koran  to  the  native  youth 93 

At  an  Italian  mission  school  in  Hyderabad  ....  108 
Four  Indian  princes  at  Nizam  College,  Hyderabad  . 109 

Baroda  types  124 

A Baroda  merchant 125 

Field  day  at  a Christian  college  in  Singapore  . . . 152 

An  Indian  hill  man 153 

Buddhist  funeral  procession 190 

Class  in  an  Oriental  college  in  Hyderabad  ....  191 

A water-gate  entrance  to  Foochow 234 

Steam  river  boats  at  Hong  Kong 235 

The  wife  of  a Chinese  farmer 250 

Chinese  plow  drawn  by  a water  buffalo 251 


THE  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 

PAGE 

Native  Filipinos 262 

In  a Bombay  street 263 

A woodland  scene  in  rural  Japan 276 

Miyajima  Island,  Japan 277 

Room  in  an  inn  at  Nara 324 

In  a Japanese  tea  garden 325 


THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


THE  MODERNIZING  OF 
THE  ORIENT 


i 

New  Dreams  in  the  Orient 

WE  are  accustomed  to  think  of  the  Oriental  as  a 
passive,  slow-moving,  dreamy  creature,  satis- 
fied with  his  own  antiquity,  standing  aloof  from  the 
modern  world  with  its  aggressive  desires  and 
achievements,  turning  his  gaze  into  his  own  soul. 
We  think  of  the  Orient  as  did  Matthew  Arnold, 
when  he  wrote : 

The  East  bowed  low  before  the  blast, 

In  patient,  deep  disdain ; 

She  let  the  legions  thunder  past, 

And  plunged  in  thought  again. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  genuine  surprise  that  the 
Westerner,  who  to-day  visits  the  Orient,  finds  vir- 
tually the  entire  East  coming  with  a rush  into  the 
Western  world. 

While  riding  on  the  back  of  a camel  on  the  edge 
of  the  Sahara  Desert  not  far  from  Biskra,  I heard 
a whirring  overhead,  and  looking  up  I saw  an  aero- 
plane of  the  French  army,  wheeling  over  the  black 
tents  of  the  Bedouins.  The  Moslem  pilgrims  are  no 
longer  obliged  to  go  to  Mecca  by  camel  caravan,  but 

3 


4 THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


are  whirled  there  by  express  trains,  while  the  elec- 
tric light  is  said  to  burn  above  the  tomb  of  the 
Mohammedan  prophet  at  Medina. 

I found  the  Gaekwar  of  Ba.roda  installing  cine- 
matograph machines  through  the  rural  sections  of 
the  native  state  of  Baroda,  and  going  in  cognito  to 
sit  in  a back  seat  and  watch  the  expressions  of  the 
Indian  cultivators,  as  they  witnessed  the  modern 
methods  of  farming  on  the  prairies  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska. 

China  is  not  behind.  The  land  which  we  have  so 
long  connected  with  an  antediluvian  people,  remote 
from  our  civilization  as  in  the  days  of  Marco  Polo, 
has  now  established  a parliament,  developed  reform- 
ers urging  the  single  tax,  revolutionized  her  school 
system,  and  reports  the  doings  of  suffragettes  in 
Peking. 

Japan  in  her  victorious  conflict  with  Russia  has 
been  very  largely  responsible  for  this  change  which 
has  thrilled  the  Orient  from  Tokyo  to  Morocco,  and 
Japanese  progress  in  all  forms  of  enlightenment  is 
the  order  of  the  day.  A single  intimation  of  this 
is  revealed  in  the  fact  that  98  per  cent,  of  the  male 
population  and  97  per  cent,  of  the  women  of  Japan 
can  read  and  write. 

In  no  realm  of  Oriental  activity  are  these  sudden 
and  far-reaching  changes  more  apparent  or  more 
significant  than  in  the  realm  of  education.  In  this 
vital  department  of  Eastern  advance,  one  finds  to- 
day three  distinct  tendencies:  the  tendency  toward 
utilitarianism  in  education,  the  hereditary  influence 
of  memory  training,  and  a distinct  drift  away  from 
national  gods. 

A few  years  ago  I chanced  to  be  walking  with  a 


A sake  shop  in  Tokyo,  Japan 


NEW  DREAMS  IN  THE  ORIENT  5 

friend  through  a somewhat  unfrequented  part  of  the 
State  of  Oregon.  We  came  to  a small  station  of  a 
railroad  which  had  been  recently  constructed,  where 
we  found  an  old  man  and  an  old  woman  and  a little 
white  dog  waiting  to  see  the  train.  It  was  evi- 
dently a new  experience  for  them  and  when  the 
train  rushed  through,  the  little  dog  started  on  the 
run  after  it.  The  old  lady  turned  to  the  old  man 
and  said,  “Do  you  suppose  he  will  catch  it?”  The 
old  farmer  drawled,  “I  wonder  what  he  will  do  with 
the  blamed  thing  if  he  does  catch  it!” 

For  a year  and  a half  I have  been  asking  this 
question  of  students  around  the  world,  “What  are 
you  going  to  do  with  your  education?” 

I find  the  Oriental  student,  in  the  first  place,  a 
thoroughgoing  utilitarian  in  education.  He  goes  to 
school  for  a purpose  and  the  purpose  is  represented 
in  piastres,  in  rupees,  or  in  dollars  and  yen.  The 
economic  factor  is  more  and  more  determining  every 
other  factor  in  the  East.  All  Asia  is  being  per- 
meated with  modern  industry  and  present  day  me- 
chanical progress.  The  Oriental  has  no  option  in 
the  matter  since  the  positions  in  the  government 
and  such  callings  as  those  of  lawyers  in  India,  are 
already  filled  to  overflowing.  The  material  devel- 
opment of  those  countries,  moreover,  call  for  a new 
type  of  man,  a man  trained  in  special  and  vocational 
institutions. 

I asked  Lord  Kitchener  his  educational  policy 
for  Egyptian  youth.  He  answered  sententiously, 
“We  don’t  want  them  to  get  their  hands  soft.”  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  you  still  see  along  the  River 
Nile  the  shadoof  men  with  brown,  bending  bodies, 
lifting  the  Nile  water  to  the  long  canals  to  water 


6 THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


their  rainless  lands,  very  much  as  their  ancestors 
did  in  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs,  within  a hundred 
yards  you  will  quite  likely  see  a score  or  more  of 
government  school  Egyptian  students,  working  on 
modern  irrigation  trenches,  surveying  for  bridges 
and  dams,  thus  following  out  the  plan  of  Eng- 
land for  reclaiming  the  land  of  the  Nile  country. 
By  this  plan,  during  the  last  twenty  years,  one  and 
one-half  million  acres  of  the  richest  tillable  land 
in  the  world  has  been  turned  from  desert  sands  into 
profitable  areas.  Ten  million  pounds  sterling  has 
been  spent  recently  in  this  one  branch  of  Egyptian 
development. 

The  popularity  of  these  schools  for  training  en- 
gineers, farmers,  policemen  and  men  of  commerce, 
is  revealed  from  the  fact  that  recently  there  were 
2,000  applications  for  384  vacancies  in  a trades 
school  in  Cairo. 

The  Egyptian  student  has  no  illusions  about  edu- 
cation. He  cares  little  about  the  still  and  quiet  air 
of  delightful  studies.  He  figures  that  it  will  take 
something  like  $75  a year  for  four  years  to  get  the 
training  of  an  expert  or  specialist  in  one  of  these 
vocational  schools.  At  the  end  of  the  time  he  can 
command  perhaps  $40  a month,  as  he  hopes,  in  a 
government  position  which  is  the  cynosure  of  the 
ambition  of  the  student  in  the  Orient.  If  he  had  not 
taken  his  school  training  he  would  be  receiving  ten 
or  fifteen  dollars  a month.  He  estimates,  therefore, 
that  it  is  worth  while  to  go  to  school. 

In  India  the  drift  towards  training  for  the  sake 
of  its  economic  value  is  quite  as  pronounced  as  in 
the  near  East. 

The  first  meeting  which  I addressed  in  India  was 


NEW  DREAMS  IN  THE  ORIENT 


7 


a Brahmin  club  in  the  city  of  Bombay.  At  the 
close  of  the  meeting  a score  or  more  of  Brah- 
mins waited  upon  me  to  ask  concerning  something 
of  great  importance  to  them.  I expected  to  he 
interviewed  regarding  certain  abstruse  and  spec- 
ulative questions  relating  to  Hinduism  and  Christi- 
anity, or  to  discuss  the  constitution  of  our  souls. 
Instead  they  desired  to  get  my  help  in  securing  a 
first-class  farming  expert,  who  would  be  the  head  of 
an  agricultural  college  for  which  they  had  already 
raised  a considerable  amount  of  money.  Such  de- 
mands are  significant  in  a country  where  92  per 
cent,  of  the  population  live  by  the  land,  and  in  a 
country  which,  just  emerging  into  Western  meth- 
ods and  achievements,  carries  on  a commerce  with 
England  alone  worth  $400,000,000  a year. 

I found  young  men  in  India  placing  the  word 
“failed  B.A.”  after  their  names,  which  I discovered 
had  an  economic  significance.  Such  a man  re- 
veals the  fact  that  he  has  tried  for  a B.A.  degree 
and  failed.  He  holds  a position,  therefore,  so  much 
above  the  common  herd  that  he  can  command  a 
more  lucrative  official  position,  and  can  also  require 
a dower  from  his  prospective  wife’s  father  of  at 
least  a thousand  rupees.  If  he  had  been  successful 
in  securing  the  regular  B.A.  degree  he  would  be 
worth  in  the  marriage  market  from  three  thousand 
to  five  thousand  rupees. 

This  utilitarian  tendency  comes  out  in  the  craze 
to  learn  English,  which  is  everywhere  apparent 
among  Asiatic  students.  In  certain  lectures  to  stu- 
dents in  India  the  presiding  officer  makes  the  state- 
ment beforehand  that  the  lecturer  will  speak  en- 
tirely in  English  and  that  those  students  who  do  not 


8 THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


understand  English  will  be  free  to  retire  at  any 
time.  The  result — every  student  holds  firmly  to 
his  seat  and  tries  to  look  interested  and  intelligent, 
regardless  of  whether  or  not  he  understands  a word 
of  the  lecture.  Otherwise,  the  students  would  be 
quite  inclined  to  go  out  and  come  in  at  their  will 
during  the  lecture,  according  to  their  custom  in 
some  parts  of  India. 

A Chinese  student  in  Peking  advertised  in  a daily 
paper  recently,  “I  teach  English  as  far  as  G.” 

A student  who  sat  beside  me  in  a Tokyo  tram  car 
was  very  desirous  of  impressing  me  with  the  fact 
that  he  was  familiar  with  English.  He  held  Burke’s 
“Reflections  on  the  French  Revolution”  close  to  his 
face,  glancing  frequently  at  me  to  discover  if  I no- 
ticed him  and  was  sufficiently  impressed.  In  look- 
ing more  closely  I noticed  that  he  was  reading  his 
English  book  bottomside  up. 

The  modern  Oriental  is  not  only  utilitarian,  but 
he  is  a slave  to  a vicious  memory  system  which  has 
been  in  vogue  in  the  Orient  for  generations.  From 
time  immemorial  the  Easterner  has  been  inclined  to 
use  his  memory  for  a brain.  One  only  wonders  that 
there  is  as  much  initiative  and  original  thinking  as 
exists  at  present  in  the  Orient. 

The  Moslem  student  has  found  his  educational 
curriculum  to  comprise  chiefly  the  committing  to 
memory  of  the  Koran!  Twelve  thousand  students 
in  El  Azhar  University  are  required  in  their  en- 
trance examination  to  be  able  to  recite  from  mem- 
ory at  least  one-half  of  the  Koran.  These  students 
spend  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years  in  this  greatest 
Moslem  University  in  a further  memorizing  and 
repetitive  study  of  Koranic  literature.  There  are 


NEW  DEEAMS  IN  THE  OKIENT 


9 


over  a million  and  a half  Egyptian  boys  and  girls 
at  present  in  the  native  schools  of  Egypt  spending 
their  chief  time  in  memorizing  this  hook.  In  1910 
there  were  5,565  pupils  in  the  native  “Kuttabs”  or 
Moslem  village  schools,  who  were  able  to  recite 
from  memory  the  entire  Koran,  while  110,844  pupils 
had  committed  to  memoiy  a large  portion  of  this 
book — a considerably  greater  task  than  learning  to 
recite  the  entire  New  Testament. 

This  memory  system,  together  with  a wrong  start 
in  higher  education,  has  been  a harrier  for  years  in 
Indian  education.  Indian  schoolboys  have  been  en- 
couraged to  stuff  their  minds  with  words,  the  mean- 
ing of  which  they  did  not  in  the  least  understand,  to 
memorize  books  which  were  quite  foreign  to  the 
everyday  needs  of  their  native  land,  in  order  to  get 
a B.A.  degree,  corresponding  to  that  given  to  the 
English  boy.  As  a consequence  the  Indian  student 
would  be  floored  by  a single  question  requiring  orig- 
inal thinking  or  scientific  analysis,  but  might  be  able 
to  repeat  whole  pages  of  ‘‘Paradise  Lost”  or  a 
Shakespearean  play. 

Lord  Macaulay’s  plan  of  establishing  higher  edu- 
cation in  India  for  the  sake  of  making  government 
clerks  was  veiy  good  so  long  as  government  clerks 
were  needed,  but  now  that  these  places  are  more 
than  filled,  and  the  need  is  for  well-trained  and 
thoughtful  leaders  of  the  New  India,  the  Indian 
youth  finds  himself  handicapped  with  an  hereditary 
tradition  of  memory  work,  and  training  simply  to 
pass  an  examination. 

The  ancient  classical  system  of  Chinese  study  was 
also  open  to  the  same  objection.  The  Literati  were 
able  to  memorize  Confucius,  but  had  little  ability  to 


10  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


utilize  their  education  in  practical  life.  A professor 
in  Hong  Kong  told  me  of  a student  who  had  been 
studying  the  Bible  for  some  time  and  whom  he  asked 
to  criticise  the  life  and  acts  of  Moses.  The  student 
replied  solemnly,  “Far  be  it  from  me,  a student  of 
Confucius,  to  criticise  the  life  of  so  great  a man  as 
Moses,  but  if  you  would  like  me  to  give  you  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  here  they  are,”  at  which 
with  amazing  rapidity  he  went  through  the  entire 
list  of  the  Old  Testament  books  and  started  to  repeat 
them  backwards  before  the  amazed  professor  could 
explain  to  him  that  it  was  not  memory,  but  analysis 
he  had  requested. 

The  bane  of  examinations  in  Japan  is  due  not  so 
much  to  memoriter  education  as  to  the  lack  of 
sufficient  number  of  institutions  of  higher  educa- 
tion. At  one  of  the  higher  commercial  colleges  in 
Tokyo  a teacher  showed  me  long  lines  of  young  men, 
including  over  two  thousand  students,  who  had  come 
up  to  try  the  examination  while  only  seventy  of  these 
students  could  be  received.  Examination  day  is  a 
most  pathetic  one  in  Japan,  for  the  students  who 
fail  have  no  further  chance  for  education  until  the 
next  year,  and  graduation  from  these  colleges  and 
universities  means  to  them  their  careers.  A teacher 
told  me  of  a student  who  had  worked  day  and  night 
to  prepare  for  his  examinations  and  who  had  under- 
mined his  health.  He  was  followed  by  his  mother 
to  the  examination  halls.  She  was  found  at  the  door 
of  the  examination  room  with  a package  of  medicine, 
while  outside  she  had  brought  a coolie  with  a jin- 
rikisha  to  take  her  boy  home  in  case,  as  the  doctor 
hinted  to  her,  he  might  not  survive  the  examina- 
tion. 


NEW  DREAMS  IN  THE  ORIENT 


11 


“What  is  the  remedy1?”  I asked  of  many  promi- 
nent Japanese.  “Convince  the  government,”  they 
replied,  “to  spend  less  money  upon  battleships  and 
army  equipment  and  build  sufficient  institutions  of 
higher  learning  to  accommodate  the  ever  increasing 
number  of  Japanese  youth.” 

A third  tendency  apparent  throughout  the  East 
is  the  drift  of  educated  men  away  from  their  ances- 
tral religion.  Recently  a census  was  taken  at  the 
Imperial  University  of  Tokyo  in  relation  to  this 
matter,  when  something  like  seventy  students  said 
that  they  were  Christians,  300  claimed  to  be  Shin- 
toists,  Confucianists  or  Buddhists,  while  the  other 
5,000  or  more  students  disclaimed  any  religious  loy- 
alties, or  claimed  to  he  agnostic.  The  educated 
youth  of  the  Orient  shows  a decided  inclination,  as 
he  comes  into  touch  with  the  modern  scientific  and 
industrial  influences  of  the  West,  to  reject  his  native 
religion,  and  has  not  yet  revealed  any  great  or  en- 
couraging desire  to  accept  another  religion  in  its 
stead. 

The  young  Mohammedan  finds  it  difficult  to  ob- 
serve the  custom  of  praying  five  times  a day  in  a 
business  office,  especially  in  cities  where  other  types 
of  religion  are  represented,  and  when  he  begins  to 
study  modern  science,  he  finds  grave  discrepancies 
between  the  teaching  of  the  Koran  and  that  of  mod- 
ern books.  To  be  sure  the  Sheikhs,  in  such  medie- 
val institutions  as  El  Azhar,  claim  that  the  Koran  is 
infallible  and  that  it  contains  everything  scientific- 
ally as  well  as  metaphysically  important.  A Sheikh 
took  some  time  to  explain  to  me  that  the  Koran 
foretold  the  coming  of  automobiles  and  aeroplanes, 
showing  me  the  passage  which  said,  “They  shall  be 


12  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


carried  about  on  the  backs  of  camels,  horses  and 
‘other  things.’  ” 

The  Indian,  trained  in  one  of  the  five  large  Govern- 
ment universities,  is  inclined  to  scoff  at  what  he  calls 
the  ignorant  superstitions  of  the  “Ganges  wor- 
shiper”; the  Chinese,  especially  those  educated  in 
Europe  and  America,  are  also  inclined  to  disparage 
the  ancient  rites  of  their  fathers’  religion,  claiming 
sometimes  to  be  Christians.  It  is  doubtful,  how- 
ever, whether  these  men  mean  by  this  anything  more 
than  the  fact  that  they  have  accepted  the  point  of 
mew  and  methods  of  work  of  a so-called  Christian 
civilization. 

In  all  these  religious  changes,  however,  one  notes 
a very  real  desire  for  what  Count  Okuma  has  de- 
fined as  a “life  force”  in  religion.  This  eminent 
Japanese  statesman  said  to  me,  “We  in  the  far  East 
have  found  our  religion  somewhat  inadequate  to 
meet  the  demands  of  modern  times,  but  we  are  not 
satisfied  with  Christianity  as  it  is  expressed  in  so 
many  varying  creeds.  We  do  not  understand  these 
differences  and  we  are  not  interested  in  the  theology 
and  the  metaphysics  of  them.  We  want  and  need 
a practical  religion;  a religion  that  will  help  us  in 
our  business ; a religion  that  will  make  us  happy,  and 
serviceable  to  others ; a religion  that  will  take  away 
from  our  lives  fear  and  worry.” 

It  is  a great  moment  for  the  Orient.  It  is  a period 
of  tremendous  import  for  all  Asia,  alert  with  new 
desires  and  new  hopes.  The  East  to-day  is  a great 
melting  pot  of  diverse  forces;  East  and  West,  reli- 
gion and  economics,  antiquity  and  modernity,  are  all 
struggling  and  seething  together.  Few  men,  even 
those  who  best  know  these  people,  dare  to  predict  the 


NEW  DREAMS  IN  THE  ORIENT 


13 


result.  One  thing  is  certain,  the  Oriental  is  at  last 
awake.  His  conservatism  and  his  aloofness  have 
been  broken  up.  He  stands  on  the  borderland  of 
vast  and  unlimited  possibilities.  He  is  facing  the 
dawn  of  a new  Oriental  day. 


n 


The  Hillmejst  of  North  Africa 

IN  the  far  north  of  Algeria,  between  the  lofty 
Djurjura  Mountains  and  the  Mediterranean, 
there  lives  a people  little  known  as  yet  to  guidebooks 
and  tourists,  the  Hillmen  of  Kabylia. 

The  air  of  romance  lies  upon  this  land  and  its 
history.  The  Kabyle,  when  asked  for  the  origin  of 
his  people,  will  tell  you  the  legend  of  how  the  Ber- 
bers in  remote  antiquity  lived  in  a distant  clime; 
how  they  finally  left  that  locality  and  wandered  many 
years  over  land  and  sea  until  they  came  to  these 
secluded  mountains.  Here  they  lived  unsubdued 
for  centuries  until  the  French  army  came.  There 
are  few  sections  of  the  earth  less  touched  by  the 
influence  of  twentieth  century  living  than  are  these 
picturesque  hills  filled  with  a million  inhabitants 
born  of  a famous  fighting  stock. 

It  was  a crisp  February  morning  upon  which  we 
left  our  hotel  in  Algiers  for  our  first  day  among  the 
Kabyle  people.  Africa  has  been  called  the  “Con- 
tinent of  Surprises,”  and  our  experience  in  Kabylia 
was  confirming  proof  of  the  appropriateness  of  the 
title.  We  had  conceived  African  atmosphere  in  the 
terms  of  desert  and  caravan,  with  the  heat  playing 
in  withering  blight  over  burning  sands,  but  we  found 
here  another  Austrian  Tyrol,  an  Algerian  Switzer- 
land, with  clear  air  and  pine-covered  mountains, 
where  the  Berber  shivers  in  the  cold  nights  and 

14 


THE  HILLMEN  OF  NORTH  AFRICA  15 


looks  from  His  Hill  cottage  through  azure  sky  upon 
valleys  tilled  as  in  northern  zones. 

We  had  taken  an  automobile,  as  we  desired  to 
reach  quickly  the  very  center  of  the  Kabyle  coun- 
try, from  which  we  were  to  begin  a walking  trip. 
A few  hours  after  we  left  Algiers  we  found  our- 
selves in  a different  world.  We  plunged  into  the 
wildest  of  wild  mountain  scenery. 

Stupendous  cliffs,  with  rivers  that  rush  down  with 
a roar  equal  to  that  found  in  the  Swiss  Alps,  greet 
one  as  the  car  whirls  about  the  sharp  corners  of 
the  road  hewn  from  the  sides  of  the  mountains,  the 
road  which  is  said  to  have  been  made,  with  all  its 
alarming  zigzags,  in  seventeen  days,  the  French 
Government  employing  for  the  purpose  30,000  sol- 
diers. We  rushed  through  small  villages  of  mixed 
population;  French  emigrants  from  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, settling  their  homes,  drinking  their  red  wine, 
and  singing  their  “Marseillaise”  in  rhyme  with  the 
waterfalls  of  the  strange  land.  Sometimes  we 
looked  upon  gorges  hundreds  of  feet  below  us,  each 
hill  and  peak,  as  far  as  one  could  see,  crowned  with 
a small  Kabyle  village,  consisting  of  a cluster  of 
houses  that  seemed  perched,  high  poised  on  these 
jagged  tops,  like  flocks  of  birds. 

The  inhabitants  of  these  houses  are  proud  and 
turbulent  and  have  fought  for  generations  in  crude 
warfare  to  preserve  their  liberty.  The  Turks,  the 
Romans,  the  Carthaginians,  and  the  Vandals  have 
all  swept  over  these  lands,  leaving  no  trace  of  their 
successive  attempts  at  the  subjugation  of  the 
mountain  fastnesses. 

This  whole  section  is  under  French  control.  The 
wonderful  roads  built  by  the  French  for  the  purpose 


16  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


of  quickly  moving  their  troops,  and  a somewhat  re- 
markable system  of  compulsory  education,  are 
marks  of  their  successful  colonization.  I found  the 
French  educational  system,  in  the  small  white  school- 
houses  on  the  Kabyle  hills,  bringing  literacy  to  the 
youth,  who,  in  another  generation,  will  change  much 
of  the  old-time  barbarity  of  this  section.  Every 
child  of  school  age  is  compelled  to  be  in  attendance, 
save  one  boy,  who  may  be  retained  at  home  as  a 
shepherd-boy. 

One  is  struck  at  once  with  the  contrast  between 
French  colonial  life  and  English,  for  here  the 
Frenchman  mixes  freely  with  the  native.  He  has 
come  to  Algeria  not  simply  to  govern,  but  to  make 
there  his  home.  The  two  peoples  sit  together  in  the 
small  cafes  of  the  Kabyle  inns,  frequently  inter- 
marry, and  give  little  evidence  of  that  feeling  of 
social  difference  which  is  everywhere  evident  in 
Egypt  and  India  between  the  governing  and  the 
governed. 

The  Frenchman  has  also  brought  with  him  to  Al- 
geria an  element,  not  intended  to  benefit  the  people 
of  an  alien  race,  absinthe.  In  the  little  villages 
throughout  the  land  one  sees  the  small  French  inn, 
with  the  proprietor  or  his  wife,  usually  French  peo- 
ple of  the  lower  class,  selling  absinthe,  vermouth, 
wine,  and  brandy  to  the  native  who  has  become 
Europeanized  enough  to  acquire  a taste  for  the  in- 
toxicant forbidden  by  his  prophet,  Mahomet. 

In  government  each  village  is  a political  and  so- 
cial unit,  a miniature  republic,  entirely  autonomous. 
After  years  of  revolution  and  rebellion  the  various 
Kabyle  tribes  are  now  divided  into  sections,  each 
section  composed  of  several  tribes.  The  tribe  origi- 


THE  HILLMEN  OF  NORTH  AFRICA  17 


nally  grew  out  of  the  union  of  villages  for  common 
protection.  The  new  French  organization  has  done 
away  with  the  old  sovereign  headman,  placing  all 
under  the  civil  authorities  and  the  common  law. 

It  is  due  to  such  beginnings  of  government  that 
the  traveler  is  able  to  wander  at  will  in  a country 
which  a few  years  ago  was  utterly  inaccessible  to 
the  outer  world.  We  visited  small  huts  where  sev- 
eral families  were  found  living  on  mud  floors,  shar- 
ing their  habitations  with  the  beasts  of  the  field. 
Over  the  low  doorways  one  found  at  times  a skull 
for  “luck.”  The  Kabyle  huts  are  built  of  sun- 
baked, mud  bricks  and  stone  and  thatched  with 
straw;  a square  hovel,  without  windows,  chimney, 
chairs,  table,  or  beds ; a mud  floor,  a slab  of  mud  at 
the  side  for  a seat,  no  air  save  that  which  comes 
from  the  doorway,  no  privacy,  no  touch  of  beauty  or 
homeliness. 

In  one  corner  would  be  a woman  weaving;  on  an- 
other side  a great  jar,  big  enough  to  hold  a person, 
a receptacle  of  food  and  clothing,  all  the  household 
treasures,  in  fact.  Three  stones,  upon  which  sat 
a cooking  pot,  furnished  the  kitchen.  In  this  cook- 
ing bowl  one  usually  found  kous  kous,  the  national 
dish,  a kind  of  cornmeal  mush,  taking  the  place  of 
bread,  potatoes,  and  often  meat. 

Chickens  and  children  scampered  from  beneath 
our  feet  as  we  entered  this  humble  abode.  A don- 
key was  tied  in  a dark  corner,  and  some  goats  were 
roped  off  in  another  inclosure.  All  this  mingled  life 
beneath  one  roof  represents  home  to  the  Kabyle. 

Nor  were  the  domestic  relations  and  the  daily  life 
of  these  people  less  primitive.  We  saw  little  girl- 
wives  of  nine  and  ten  years  of  age  who  had  been 


18  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


purchased  for  fifty  francs  by  their  Kabyle  husbands. 
We  met  grandmothers  only  thirty  years  old.  We 
saw  upon  the  mountain  ridges,  3,000  feet  above  the 
Mediterranean,  Kabyle  farmers  plowing  the  hill- 
sides -with  crooked  sticks  drawn  by  oxen,  as  their 
ancestors  did  ten  centuries  ago. 

We  chatted  familiarly  in  French  patois  with  the 
picturesque  women  at  the  wells,  who  carried  on  their 
heads  or  shoulders  quaint  jugs  and  slim-necked  jars 
containing  water,  as  naturally  as  did  the  women  in 
the  time  of  Abraham.  We  passed  women  grinding 
corn  at  the  mill,  while  others  made  olive  oil  with 
their  crude  hand  presses,  all  of  which  was  but  a 
page  from  the  old  pictorial  family  Bible. 

But  even  in  these  surroundings  home  life  takes 
on  a happy  significance.  To  be  sure,  the  sexes  are 
lightly  joined  and  as  lightly  parted.  The  triple  di- 
vorce is  as  common  here  as  in  other  Moslem  lands, 
where  the  husband  may  repeat  three  times  the 
words,  “I  divorce  thee,”  and  there  is  no  further 
need  of  courts  or  judges.  A wife,  however,  is  some- 
thing of  a luxury  among  these  rural  people,  for  the 
cost  of  a wife  ranges  from  100  to  600  francs.  The 
Kabyle  boy  who  acted  as  our  guide  told  us  of  his 
saving  of  250  francs,  in  order  that  he  might  buy  a 
wife  and  have  a little  cotta,ge  on  one  of  the  moun- 
tains. 

Indeed,  a Kabyle  will  live  on  12  sous  a day,  two  of 
which  he  will  spend  on  tobacco,  his  only  luxury,  and 
if  he  has  no  work  he  cuts  his  rations  in  half,  in  order 
that  he  may  save  money  to  buy  a wife.  As  one  of 
the  young  men  said  to  us:  “I  am  getting  as  many 

napoleons  as  I can  to  shake  before  the  eyes  of  the 
old  man,  for  when  he  sees  these  shining  pieces  he 


THE  HILLMEN  OF  NORTH  AFRICA  19 


will  prefer  them  in  payment  for  his  daughter  to  a 
camel  or  sheep.” 

These  marriages  by  revenue  only  are  not,  how- 
ever, warranted  to  succeed.  The  women  are  igno- 
rant and  superstitious.  They  believe  in  love  charms 
and  philters,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  a 
woman  throwing  herself  at  the  feet  of  a doctor 
missionary  and  begging  for  a charm  that  will  win 
her  husband  back  to  her,  or  still  oftener  for  a poison 
that  will  do  away  with  her  hated  rival.  Since  these 
people  have  learned  of  a little  powder  called 
arsenic,  there  have  been  many  cases  of  the  sudden 
disappearance  of  an  enemy  after  said  enemy  has  in- 
dulged in  a hearty  meal.  The  person  who  commits 
such  a crime  is  seldom  dealt  with  by  law,  the  French 
authorities  deeming  it  unwise  to  take  too  much  ob- 
servance of  what  are  lightly  called  “family  mat- 
ters,” even  when  complaint  is  made;  it  seems  to  he 
an  accepted  fact  that  if  you  have  an  enemy  in  this 
country,  man  or  woman,  the  best  rule  to  follow  is 
to  get  rid  of  him  before  he  gets  rid  of  you. 

The  missionaries  are  attempting  to  change  such 
customs  of  the  people.  But  it  is  difficult  to  graft 
new  notions  upon  traditional  beliefs  and  habits.  A 
striking  example  was  brought  to  our  attention,  re- 
vealing the  obstacles  which  foreigners  meet  in  their 
attempts  to  educate  the  women  and  girls.  In  one 
mission  I found  a native  Christian,  a young  man 
who  was  a great  joy  to  the  Christian  workers  be- 
cause of  his  devotion  to  the  cause  for  which  they  had 
worked  so  devotedly,  and  often  with  very  little 
progress. 

This  young  man  decided  to  marry;  the  mission- 
aries persuaded  him  to  delay  his  marriage,  and  in- 


20  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


stead  of  taking  tlie  young  girl  as  wife,  to  allow  lier  to 
be  trained  in  the  mission  school  for  four  years, 
making  of  her  an  example  for  other  young  men  and 
maidens  of  the  villages,  and  to  show  what  a modern 
wife  could  really  be  as  a helpmate.  The  youth 
agreed,  and  the  girl  was  brought  to  the  mission  and 
for  four  years  was  trained  in  needlework,  house- 
keeping, cooking,  and  in  varied  accomplishments 
which  were  intended  to  serve  her  as  a model  home- 
keeper.  She  was  clever  and  adaptable,  and  the  good 
ladies  who  had  her  in  charge  were  proud  of  her  ex- 
ample, seeing  in  her  the  commencement  of  a new 
order  and  knowing  that  the  outcome  of  the  depar- 
ture was  being  anticipated  eagerly  by  many  of  the 
young  men  of  the  province,  who,  they  hoped,  would 
bring  as  a result  their  fiancees  to  the  mission  for 
training. 

Along  with  her  housekeeping  and  her  books,  how- 
ever, this  mountain  pioneer  of  the  educated  woman 
movement  learned  many  things  that  are  not  deemed 
necessary  for  Mohammedan  wives  to  know,  one  es- 
pecially, namely,  that  woman  is  as  good  as  man,  his 
equal  if  not  his  superior.  It  was  thus  that  upon 
her  wedding  day  she  horrified  the  wedding  guests 
by  refusing  to  kiss  the  feet  of  the  assembled  male 
relatives  of  her  husband.  Such  rebellion  on  the 
part  of  a wife  had  never  been  heard  of  in  that  coun- 
try, and  became  the  sensation  of  the  villages. 

The  matter  did  not  end  there,  for  the  young  wife 
would  not  bow  in  abject  obedience  to  her  mother-in- 
law,  a woman  of  the  old  school.  This  conservative 
woman  endured  the  refractory  daughter-in-law  and 
the  pitying  looks  of  her  neighbors  for  a few  months ; 
then  she  took  the  law  into  her  own  hands,  and  one 


THE  HILLMEN  OF  NORTH  AFRICA  21 


niglit  the  missionaries  were  hastily  called  by  the 
young  husband  to  assist  in  saving  the  life  of  his 
wife.  She  was  saved,  the  arsenic  being  made  inef- 
fective by  the  antidote,  but — it  has  been  impossible 
to  persuade  other  Kabyles  that  education  is  good 
for  women. 

The  difference  between  the  Kabyle  and  the  Arab 
is  a striking  one.  Action  is  the  watchword  of  the 
Kabyle,  as  surely  as  sloth  is  the  sign  of  the  Arab. 
The  Kabyles  are  hard  workers  and  terrible  fighters, 
the  people  of  a hundred  wars.  The  Arabs  are  in- 
dolent dwellers  in  tents,  as  in  the  days  of  Job.  The 
Kabyle  is  seldom  seen  on  a horse ; he  belongs  to  the 
soil,  and  the  nearer  he  gets  to  it  the  better  it  seems 
to  suit  him.  The  Kabyles  herd  together  in  villages, 
till  the  soil,  and  weave  and  forge  and  work,  while 
labor  for  the  Arab  is  generally  degrading  to  his 
very  thought.  The  Arab  is  swarthy,  while  among 
the  Kabyles  one  often  finds  red  beards,  the  light- 
blue  eyes  of  the  Saxon,  and  frequently  blonde  chil- 
dren. 

In  the  treatment  of  women,  also,  the  Kabyles  dif- 
fer from  the  Arab.  There  is  no  Asiatic  seclusion 
of  women  among  these  mountain  people,  no  harems, 
no  veils.  The  women  are  in  the  harvest  fields  and 
are  turning  the  wheels  of  the  olive  mills,  much  like 
the  peasant  women  of  Europe. 

In  one  respect,  however,  the  Kabyles  resemble  the 
Arabs,  that  is  in  the  manner  in  which  they  shower 
jewelry  upon  their  womenfolk.  The  Kabyle  female, 
clad  in  daring  reds  and  yellows,  almost  invariably 
is  found  with  bracelets  jangling  from  her  arms  and 
ankles,  and  great  hoop  earrings,  and  silver  orna- 
ments about  her  neck.  The  Kabyle  is  poor,  yet  ap- 


22  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


parently  never  so  poor  as  to  be  unable  to  purchase 
jewelry. 

The  possibility  of  this  people  rising  above  their 
superstitions  and  savagery  is  demonstrated  here 
and  there  in  a mission  station.  One  day  we  chanced 
upon  an  attractive  missionary  compound;  we  were 
greeted  by  a fine-looking  Kabyle  and  ushered  inside, 
where  for  twenty-five  years  two  English  women 
have  lived  and  worked,  often  in  extreme  danger  of 
their  lives. 

We  found  here  children  being  taught  to  sew  and  to 
work  according  to  Western  fashion.  We  found  gar- 
dens kept  by  sturdy  Kabyle  men,  who  worked  among 
rows  of  artichokes,  potatoes,  and  lemon  trees.  The 
story  of  these  women  reads  like  a romance.  They 
told  us  how,  with  but  a single  guide  for  protection, 
they  had  carried  their  Bibles  from  village  to  village, 
often  obliged  to  travel  the  whole  night  long,  in  con- 
stant danger  from  assault,  as  village  after  village 
refused  them  lodging.  They  were  accused  of  secret- 
ing firearms  and  gunpowder  in  their  homes,  and  in 
one  instance  gunpowder  was  secretly  placed  in  their 
dwelling,  in  order  that  a French  official  might  be 
called  and  discover  these  signs  of  treachery  against 
the  Government. 

The  results  in  conversions  to  Christianity  in  any 
of  the  missions  are  not  considerable,  but  the  influ- 
ence of  Western  religion  and  civilized  living  before 
the  eyes  of  the  natives  has  not  been  lost.  These 
missionaries  have  brought  better  sanitary  condi- 
tions, they  have  taught  the  people  better  care  for 
their  children,  they  have  influenced  whole  communi- 
ties by  their  schools,  and  especially  by  their  medical 
work,  and  have  planted  the  seeds  of  a modern  civili- 


THE  HILLMEN  OF  NORTH  AFRICA  23 


zation,  sure  to  be  reaped  by  tbe  children  and  tbe 
children’s  children  of  these  mountain  folk. 

There  is  perhaps  no  more  distinctive  character- 
istic of  these  people  than  that  which  lies  in  their 
patriotism,  a part  of  their  religion,  a readiness  to 
die  for  their  native  hills.  Like  the  Swiss,  they  have 
an  undying  love  for  the  mountains ; they  love  their 
rugged  protection,  a bulwark  against  the  intruder. 

The  solemn  “League  and  Covenant”  is  a federa- 
tion of  death  in  the  Kabyle  Mountains.  The  young 
men  rise  up  together  and  swear  mighty  oaths  for 
the  protection  of  their  hills;  prayers  for  the  dead 
are  read  over  them  as  they  march  forth  to  fight. 
They  go  out  to  their  conflicts  as  dead  men.  They 
believe  that  if  they  annihilate  the  enemy  they  may 
return  and  live. 

When  the  French  were  drawn  off  in  their  war  with 
Germany  a compact  was  made  with  the  old  Kabyle 
General,  Mokeani,  in  which,  despite  his  enmity  to- 
ward the  French  and  his  readiness  to  lead  his  forces 
against  them,  this  savage  old  warrior  solemnly 
promised  not  to  lift  his  hand  as  long  as  France  was 
engaged  in  fighting  Germany.  The  moment,  how- 
ever, that  the  war  in  Europe  was  over,  every  moun- 
tain top  in  the  Kabyle  country  blazed  with  the  signal 
torches  of  attack,  and  there  followed  one  of  the 
bloodiest  conflicts  known  in  these  hills,  a conflict 
which  was  only  settled  in  favor  of  the  French  by 
reason  of  her  modern  army  and  the  fact  that  the 
old  General,  before  permitting  his  men  to  go  into 
battle,  gave  the  French  forty-eight  hours’  notice. 
It  is  this  mingled  patriotism  and  fanaticism  which 
marks  off  the  hillmen  of  Kabyle  as  a distinctive  and 
picturesque  race. 


Ill 


Old  Egypt  in  Training 

I ONCE  heard  an  old  resident  of  Bombay  re- 
mark that  many  had  visited  India  and  few 
had  failed  to  record  their  impressions.  The  com- 
ment is  apropos  to  Egyptian  visitors.  Yet  the  im- 
pressions that  usually  find  form  and  face  one  upon 
the  shelves  of  the  booksellers  regarding  both  India 
and  Egypt,  relate  to  the  dress  and  outward  customs 
rather  more  than  to  the  structure  of  the  civilization, 
the  ornamentation  of  the  national  building  rather 
than  the  construction  and  unity  thereof. 

Nor  is  this  surprising.  The  Indian  coolie  and  the 
Egyptian  Fellaheen  are  sufficiently  absorbing  and 
unique  to  the  average  traveler  to  engage  his  undi- 
vided attention,  without  suggesting  the  “Why”  and 
“Wherefore”  of  these  picturesque  and  paradoxical 
people.  It  is  all  a wonderful  phantasmagoria — this 
Egypt — an  Arabian  Night’s  dream  of  camels  and 
mosques,  of  golden  sunsets  and  minarets.  The 
visitor  to  Egypt  moreover  is  usually  a tourist  whose 
impressions  are  made  to  order,  purchased  a la  carte. 
They  begin  with  Sheplieard’s  Hotel  as  a center  and 
central  sun,  spreading  outward  with  regulation  radii, 
to  a periphery  upon  which  sail  every  conceivable 
image  from  a golden  mummy  of  Rameses  II  to  a 
“perfectly  lovely”  dragoman. 

There  is  no  Egyptian  question  for  many  such 
travelers,  no  irrigation  problems,  no  “capitula- 

24 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


25 


tions,”  no  educational  complexities.  It  is  quite 
sufficient  for  a lifetime  of  impression,  simply  to  float 
along  the  Nile  for  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  Cairo  to  Assuan  in  a dahabiyah,  decked  in 
Oriental  luxuriousness,  every  turn  of  the  stream 
bringing  one  face  to  face  with  the  pyramids  and 
broken  pylons  of  a civilization  thriving  thirty  cen- 
turies before  one  was  born.  The  Egyptian  trav- 
eler, indeed,  may  not  pass  the  phase  of  unqualified 
surprise  and  inexhaustible  interest  associated  with 
these  monuments  that  mark  dynasties  piling  one 
upon  another  in  cumulative  confusion,  as  steadily 
and  impressively  as  the  tombs  and  temples  of  the 
old  kings  confront  one  along  the  banks  of  the  Upper 
Nile.  It  is  enough  for  them  that  Egypt,  as  Robert 
Browning  would  say,  dispenses  a 

Faint  sweetness  from  some  old 
Egyptian’s  fine  worm-eaten  shroud 
Which  breaks  to  dust  when  once  unrolled. 

But  we  venture  to  hope  that  there  is  a consider- 
able remainder  of  Egyptian  travelers,  as  well  as 
many  persons  sitting  comfortably  at  their  Western 
hearthstones,  doing  their  traveling  vicariously,  who 
are  interested  in  the  life  of  Egypt  itself,  the  organ- 
ism that  throbs  behind  these  diverse  external  phe- 
nomena. To  the  student  thus  interested  in  this 
real  Egypt,  education  plays  at  present  an  important 
role.  It  is  closely  interlaced  with  every  great 
issue  connected  with  the  modern  ‘Egyptian  Ques- 
tion.’ The  new  schools  for  women,  striking  at  the 
most  vital  point  of  social  progress;  the  schools  of 
technology,  agriculture,  and  commerce,  giving  the 
initial  educational  impulse  to  practical  craftsman- 


26  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


ship;  the  other  Government  schools  with  their  con- 
stantly improving  curricula  and  modern  equipment, 
pioneering  the  new  native  education  now  springing 
up  along  the  entire  length  of  the  Nile — these  to- 
gether with  the  excellent  schools  of  foreign  missions 
are  the  significant  signs  of  a changing  point  of  view 
on  the  part  of  tens  of  thousands  of  Egypt’s  most 
promising  youth. 

In  truth  it  is  through  these  educational  lenses 
that  we  can  most  accurately  discern  the  New  Egypt. 
Here  we  note  the  drift  and  tendencies  of  racial  evo- 
lution, the  action  and  reaction  of  the  tides  of  twen- 
tieth century  progress  as  these  mingle  with  the 
current  whose  springs  find  their  source  in  centuries 
as  diverse  as  they  are  distant.  Here  we  have  the 
amazing  spectacle  of  medieval  education,  unchanged 
since  the  tenth  century,  holding  its  determined  way 
by  the  side  of  the  most  modern  European  systems. 
Here  we  have  the  age-long  conflict  of  religion  with 
science. 

In  confronting  such  varied  conditions,  the  Gov- 
ernment is  spending,  for  education  alone,  535,764 
English  pounds  a year.  She  is  giving  Egypt  some 
of  her  best  educational  advisors  and  experts.  She 
is  wrestling  here  with  some  of  the  most  perplexing 
and  knotty  problems  ever  faced  in  education  on  the 
planet.  How  is  she  coming  on  ? Is  it  worth  while  ? 
What  is  really  happening? 

If,  in  the  words  of  the  old  philosopher,  “knowing 
is  distinguishing,”  it  may  clarify  our  thoughts  to 
consider  Egyptian  education  in  contrast  to  the  edu- 
cation of  the  West.  For,  although  Egypt  occupies 
a kind  of  watershed  between  Occident  and  Orient, 
she  is  nevertheless  thoroughly  Oriental  in  custom, 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


27 


in  tradition,  in  institution  and  in  religion.  If  one 
ever  comes  to  understand  the  Egyptian  character 
(and  this,  in  the  minds  of  the  oldest  European  in- 
habitant, seems  unlikely),  he  approaches  such 
understanding  by  noting  the  differences  and  the 
similarities  between  the  Occidental  and  the  Oriental 
point  of  view. 

The  Egyptian  student  suffers  somewhat  when 
contrasted  with  the  student  of  the  West.  He  is, 
first  of  all,  handicapped  with  a traditional  educa- 
tional system  that  has  not  changed  materially  in 
twelve  centuries,  and  which  in  itself  is  a millstone, 
sufficient  to  submerge  any  nation  or  individual  to 
which  it  is  attached.  The  early  years  of  his  educa- 
tional training  consist  of  a benumbing  process  of 
memorizing  material  that  he  does  not  understand, 
usually  the  Koran,  which  is  written  in  classic  Arabic 
and  mysteriously  involved.  Although  he  has  an  in- 
comprehensible receptivity  for  such  material,  the  re- 
sult upon  his  mental  development  is  baneful.  The 
reiterative  exercises  produce  a type  of  mind  and 
will,  well-nigh  incapable  of  independent  initiative 
or  high  individual  decision. 

The  Egyptian’s  supreme  ideal  of  native  learning, 
the  El  Azhar  University,  reflecting  the  spirit  and 
method  of  its  twelve  thousand  Moslem  students,  and 
scores  of  lesser  El  Azhars  which  act  as  feeders  to 
the  main  institution,  preserve  medieval  education 
as  inviolate  as  the  Sphinx  keeps  the  secrets  of  the 
past.  Mohammedan  education,  as  represented  in 
this  institution  is  like  Melchisedek,  without  begin- 
ning or  end  of  days.  The  mill  of  ancient  learning 
continues  to  grind,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever.  There  is  not  simply  a situation  of  fixity 


28  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


in  educational  processes,  but  also  an  antagonism  t-o 
anything  new  amounting  to  an  impregnable  intoler- 
ance. Attempts  at  change  which  have  from  time  to 
time  been  made,  are  as  yet  merely  paper  reforms. 
While  the  Western  student  has  been  alive  to  every 
new  departure  in  Science,  Industry,  Literature  and 
Art,  thronging  his  vocational  and  scientific  institu- 
tions for  practical  training,  demanding  and  securing 
from  his  higher  colleges  immediate  response  to  his 
demands  for  elective  and  utilitarian  equipment,  the 
Egyptian  youth  who  needs  primarily  practical  and 
useful  instruction,  has  been  swaying  superstitiously 
over  his  seventh  century  literature,  utterly  detached 
from  the  problems  of  the  hour. 

Indeed,  the  regulation  training  of  the  Moslem 
youth  in  his  native  schools,  serves  to  separate  him 
quite  completely  from  the  knowledge  of  those  life 
questions  and  present  day  problems  with  which  he 
is  to  be  confronted  as  he  enters  the  New  Egypt. 
This  training  in  the  spirit  of  the  medieval  school 
men,  characterized  by  bigotry  and  sectarian  antag- 
onism to  modem  education,  blinds  the  eyes  of  his 
mind  and  at  the  same  time  quite  destroys  any  dawn- 
ing inclination  towards  analysis  and  creative  imagi- 
nation. Think  of  the  travesty  exhibited  in  this  land, 
where  the  majority  of  the  population  is  engaged  in 
agricultural  pursuits,  where  there  are  at  least  one 
million  Fellaheen  owning,  each,  fifty  acres  or  less  of 
land  in  farms.  Under  such  conditions,  where  the 
entire  prosperity  of  the  people  depends  upon  the 
knowledge  of  physical  conditions,  as  represented  in 
such  subjects  as  cotton  growing,  cultivation  of  the 
soil,  irrigation,  land  tenure  and  crops,  we  find  liter- 
ally thousands  of  students  passing  from  twelve  to 


Loading  an  up-to-date  Nile  steamer  from  the  backs  of  ships  of  the  deseit 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


29 


twenty  years  of  their  lives  in  studies  that  are  not 
even  remotely  associated  with  a practical  acquaint- 
ance with  these  fundamental  material  problems. 

The  students  of  Europe  and  America  in  contrast, 
for  the  last  quarter  of  a century  have  engaged  as  ex- 
perts in  agricultural  and  mechanical  study  and  re- 
search. In  America  in  ten  years  the  attendance  at 
fifteen  state  institutions,  founded  largely  for  prac- 
tical education,  has  increased  from  16,414  students 
to  34,770,  while  in  addition  to  the  Government  en- 
dowed Universities  there  have  been  gathered  in  the 
same  period  25,000  youth  in  Agricultural  and  Me- 
chanical colleges,  which  give  exclusive  attention  to 
fitting  men  for  farm  and  work  shop.  Even  India  has 
not  been  thus  handicapped.  In  1907  I was  the  guest 
of  H.  H.  Mann  at  Poona,  where  I found  in  process  of 
erection,  scientific  buildings  for  school  purposes 
quite  the  equal  of  many  of  our  best  educational 
structures  in  the  West;  while  in  the  Far  East,  espe- 
cially in  China  and  Japan,  nothing  impressed  me 
more  deeply  than  the  remarkable  awakening  as 
shown  both  in  modern  buildings  and  in  scientific 
teaching  in  cities  like  Hongkong,  Peking  and  Tokyo. 

But  working  in  this  old  Egypt,  like  a leaven,  is 
the  new  education — the  education  begun  by  the 
French  and  continued  and  enlarged  by  the  English 
Government  since  the  days  of  the  Occupation  in 
1884.  There  are  three  men  now  in  Egypt  with 
whom  I have  had  many  suggestive  and  illuminating 
conversations, — three  men  who  have  perhaps  been 
more  truly  responsible  than  any  others  for  the  pres- 
ent really  progressive  steps  in  Egyptian  education. 
One  of  them  is  His  Excellency,  Yacoub  Artin  Pasha, 
former  Minister  of  Education,  whom  Lord  Cromer 


30  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


calls  “by  far  the  highest  Egyptian  authority  on 
educational  matters  in  Egypt.”  Another  man 
whom  both  England  and  Egypt  will  doubtless  appre- 
ciate more  fully  in  later  years,  when  they  realize 
the  obstacles  with  which  he  has  coped  in  his  states- 
manlike work  in  Egypt,  is  Mr.  Douglas  Dunlop,  the 
present  English  Advisor  of  Egyptian  Education. 
This  man  has  clung  with  true  British  tenacity  for 
twenty-three  years  to  the  idea  of  building  up  a real 
educational  system  in  this  land  of  the  Pharaohs. 
Combated  at  nearly  every  step  by  the  pent-up  forces 
of  Oriental  tradition,  animosity  against  European 
rulers,  and  religious  narrowness,  often  prevented 
from  attempting  needed  reforms  and  changes  by 
inadequate  appropriations,  or  by  changing  govern- 
ment regimes,  Mr.  Dunlop,  supported  by  an  efficient 
band  of  officials,  inspectors,  and  at  least  a few  strong 
principals,  has  accomplished  wonders. 

Another  man  who  for  six  years  has  given  the 
best  result  of  his  lifetime  of  experience  in  practical 
education  is  Mr.  Sydney  H.  Wells.  With  his  firm 
belief  in  the  fact  that  “by  hammer  and  hand,  all 
arts  do  stand,”  he  has  been  able  to  bring  into  ex- 
istence types  of  vocational  schools : schools  of  Agri- 
culture, Engineering,  Trade,  Commerce  and  House- 
wifery. Four  thousand  students  gathered  into 
twenty-six  schools  of  this  character  throughout 
Egypt  is  indeed  a tangible  result  of  this  work  led 
so  efficiently  by  Mr.  Wells. 

When  one  fully  appreciates  the  material  with 
which  educational  leadership  has  to  work  in  Egypt 
(only  eighty-five  in  a thousand  males  and  three  in  a 
thousand  females  could  read  and  write  in  the  year 
1907)  and  when,  in  face  of  such  opposition  to  edu- 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


31 


cation,  one  discovers  that  in  1911,  251,107  students 
in  Egypt  were  under  the  direct  supervision  or  in- 
spection of  the  Ministry  of  Education,  one  must  give 
credit  and  honor  to  the  men  who  have  made  possible 
these  advances. 

These  leaders  of  student  life  have  naturally  made 
enemies.  Their  policies  at  times  have  been  mis- 
taken. The  material  from  which  they  have  been 
obliged  to  draw  for  teachers  has  been  especially  in- 
adequate. But  let  those  who  would  criticize  too 
harshly  first  examine  such  comparative  facts  as  are 
shown  in  the  following  table,  revealing  the  remark- 
able growth  of  the  schools,  established  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, furnishing  the  type  of  Egyptian  education : 


1890  1911 

In  Government  “Kuttabs” 1,961  15,169 

In  Institutions  for  training  teachers  for 

“Kuttabs”  2,713 

In  higher  Primary  schools 5,761  7,749 

In  technical  schools  and  classes 393  1,644 

In  secondary  schools 734  2,160 

In  professional  colleges 382  1,251 

Studying  abroad  (Egyptian  Educational 
Mission)  28  56 


Total  9,259  30,742 

The  four  thousand  young  men  who  go  out  from 
such  schools  as  those  suggested  above  to  accept 
practical  positions  awaiting  them  in  the  New  Egypt, 
will  not  of  course  solve  the  puzzle  of  education  or 
of  leadership.  But  they  will  help,  and  each  year 
will  reveal  more  efficient  successors  of  these  stu- 
dents. These  men  are  marking  the  first  step  and 
not  the  last  step  in  Egyptian  enlightenment.  They 


32  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


are  assisting  mightily  in  the  loosening  of  the  minds 
of  this  Eastern  land  from  their  stationary  positions, 
the  heritage  of  centuries  of  fixity  in  thought  and  re- 
ligion. As  surely  as  the  Crusades  broke  the  yoke 
from  the  neck  of  the  Middle  Ages,  so  surely  is  edu- 
cation, guided  by  the  representatives  of  European 
learning,  breaking  the  bondage  of  Egyptian  tradi- 
tions and  superstitions. 

Hopeful,  however,  as  is  the  beginning,  it  is  the 
dawn  only  and  the  effects  of  inattention  have  left 
upon  this  land  marks  of  decided  contrast  between 
East  and  West. 

The  Egyptian  system  of  education  as  well  as  the 
student  himself,  has  been  necessarily  influenced  by 
Young  Egypt’s  attitude  towards  its  rulers.  The 
student  is  a mirror  in  which  one  may  look  to  see  re- 
flected the  multiplied  influences  of  generations  of 
misrule,  deception,  warfare  and  oppression.  While 
the  Egyptian  student  is  very  proud — truly  his  van- 
ity is  prodigious — his  pride  is  not  like  that  of  the 
Western  student,  unhypocritical,  providing  hypoc- 
risy becomes  advantageous  to  personal  advance- 
ment. It  is  in  part  one  of  the  hitter  fruits  of 
generations  of  slavery  and  unfortunate  dealings  with 
the  conquerors  of  Egypt.  Nor  is  this  so  much  to 
be  wondered  at  when  one  appreciates  that  Egypt  has 
had,  for  examples  in  rulership,  such  men  as  Ismail 
Pasha  who,  not  to  speak  of  other  things,  added  to 
the  debts  of  his  country  7,000,000  pounds  a year  for 
thirteen  years,  and  for  a sample  of  economics  and 
national  patriotism,  left  at  the  time  of  his  forced 
resignation,  a heritage  to  his  country  of  a funded 
and  floating  debt  of  94,110,000  English  pounds. 

Furthermore,  many  of  these  young  men’s  fathers 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


33 


were  fellaheen  who  are  old  enough  to  remember  how 
they  were  taxed  several  times  over  by  overbearing 
Pashadom  and  unprincipled  village  Sheikhs,  while 
some  have  seen  the  rural  taxes  gathered  from  the 
helpless  farmers  by  the  aid  of  one  hundred  lashes 
of  the  Courbash.  The  student  has  also  inherited  the 
belief  that  money  is  the  chief  prize  of  life.  It  is 
often  said  there  are  two  words  in  Egypt  of  sovereign 
significance:  “feloos”  (money)  and  “boukra”  (to- 
morrow. Upon  the  streets  of  the  cities,  at  the  door- 
way of  his  humble  home  in  primitive  Egypt,  and  in 
the  exclusive  precincts  of  the  Harem,  the  Egyptian 
boy  has  been  impressed  with  the  education  that  the 
piaster  is  the  one  god.  This  tendency  is  especially 
evident  now,  when,  for  practically  the  first  time  in 
history,  the  Egyptian  can  accumulate  wealth  with- 
out the  fear  of  having  it  confiscated  by  unprincipled 
officials.  With  this  inherited  love  of  mammon  there 
has  come  also  the  inherited  dislike  of  Government. 

Students  give  the  imp-ression  that  the  Govern- 
ment is  their  enemy  and  every  victory  over  it,  even 
at  the  expense  of  honesty  and  rules  of  integrity, 
is  justifiable.  The  Egyptian  instructor  or  inspector 
of  education  even,  is  found  a prey  at  times  to  his 
ancient  and  inbred  inclination  to  batten  upon  the 
‘ ‘ powers  that  be.  ’ ’ One  is  amazed  to  find  that  the  en- 
tire governmental  administration  is  attended  with  an 
astonishing  and  ominous  mass  of  checks  and  super- 
visions providing  against  the  possibility  of  deception 
and  trickery.  The  same  precaution  that  causes  the 
Government  to  so  enclose  its  mail  bags  in  the  public 
post  boxes  as  to  prevent  the  postman  from  ever 
touching  a letter,  is  evident  in  the  required  arrange- 
ments for  scrutinizing  the  least  accounts  of  the  Ef- 


34  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


fendi  who  are  entrusted  with  responsibility  in 
connection  with  the  educational  Ministry. 

Any  one  acquainted  with  student  life  in  the  West 
with  its  openness  and  natural  honesty  is  shocked  in 
talking  with  teachers  and  educational  officials,  to 
hear  of  the  cases  of  guile  on  the  part  of  trusted  stu- 
dents. An  educator  who  has  spent  fifteen  years  in 
Egypt  told  me,  with  a real  note  of  sadness  in  his 
voice,  of  a student  whom  he  had  befriended,  sending 
him  to  Europe  to  finish  his  education,  hoping  to  fit 
him  for  a place  of  responsible  leadership,  only  to 
find,  that  virtually  from  the  beginning,  the  student 
had  been  deceiving  him;  the  young  man  was  evi- 
dently possessed  with  the  sole  ambition  to  secure 
without  cost  as  much  as  possible  from  this  official  of 
a Government  which  he,  in  common  with  the  students 
of  the  country,  considers  his  natural  foe.  I would 
not  leave  the  impression,  of  course,  that  all  Egyp- 
tian students  are  liars  or  deceivers,  any  more  than 
that  all  Western  students  are  honorable  and  truth- 
ful. But  this  strain  of  indirectness  and  inaccuracy, 
this  rift  in  the  Egyptian  lute,  this  making  predomi- 
nant of  personal  advantage,  especially  when  the 
Government  is  concerned,  seems  to  be  innate  in  many 
parts  of  the  East,  where  centuries  of  servility,  flat- 
tery and  insincerity  have  been  a legitimate  means  of 
securing  individual  desires  and  ambitions. 

Indeed,  in  this  realm  of  reality  versus  unreality, 
the  student  of  Egypt  finds  probably  his  most  ex- 
treme divergence  from  the  students  of  the  West. 
In  Western  institutions,  even  among  school  boys, 
a “dirty  trick”  in  either  the  school  work  or 
school  play,  brands  the  student  almost  beyond  re- 
demption. The  Western  student  lives  much  of  his 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


35 


life  in  the  realm  of  friendship,  camaraderie  and 
esprit  de  corps,  which  demand  openness  and  square 
dealing.  He  worships  the  heroic.  I have  often  seen 
a student  in  America  driven  out  of  college  for  lying 
or  stealing,  and  this  not  by  the  faculty  but  by  the 
student  body.  To  be  sure  the  student  of  the  West 
learns  to  be  insincere  and  to  be  cunning  enough  at 
times  as  he  mingles  with  society  or  the  life  of  trade 
beyond  his  college  walls.  As  a rule,  however,  his 
“crookedness”  and  artificiality  are  acquired  rather 
than  hereditary. 

In  Egypt,  however,  the  contrast  is  complete.  The 
Egyptian  youth  has  few  clubs,  comparatively  little 
close  fellowship  as  far  as  one  can  discover,  while 
even  his  athletics  are  so  bound  up  in  desire  for  per- 
sonal glory  that  much  of  their  true  meaning  is  lost. 
At  a football  game  occurring  not  long  ago  in  one  of 
the  secondary  schools,  after  the  opposing  team  had 
scored  six  goals  in  the  first  ten  minutes,  the  home 
team  refused  to  play  longer,  and  on  leaving  the  field, 
the  captain  of  the  team  said  to  the  Principal,  “Sir, 
it  shames  us!”  One  difference  in  favor  of  the 
Egyptian  is  quite  evident,  the  absence  of  carousing 
or  drinking  on  the  part  of  the  Moslem  young  men. 
We  look  in  vain,  however,  for  societies  for  social 
betterment,  such  as  are  present  everywhere  among 
men  in  the  West.  Both  education  and  religion  seem 
to  be  solely  for  personal  betterment.  The  student 
follows  somewhat  too  closely  the  apostolic  injunc- 
tion to  be  all  things  to  all  men.  He  will  usually 
make  you  feel  comfortable  and  amenable  by  agree- 
ing with  you,  at  whatever  cost  to  his  pride  or  self 
respect.  He  is  such  an  adept  at  this,  that  you  are 
frequently  fooled,  even  while  you  are  aware  of  his 


36  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


weakness.  One  often  experiences  the  sensation 
Shakespeare  describes  in  speaking  of  the  faithless 
mistress : 

When  my  love  swears  that  she  is  made  of  Truth, 

I do  believe  her,  though  I know  she  lies. 

The  tragic  influence  of  this  temperamental  tend- 
ency is  readily  seen  in  its  effect  upon  educational 
processes,  the  very  essence  of  which  should  be  ac- 
curacy and  truthfulness  and  close  friendly  inter- 
change of  frank  thought  and  action.  This  thorough- 
going indirectness  is  the  Egyptian’s  handicap — his 
besetting  heritage. 

An  even  greater  contrast  exists  between  the  reli- 
gion of  the  student  of  the  West  and  that  of  the  stu- 
dent of  Egypt.  The  boys  in  the  schools  of  Egypt 
are  almost  universally  members  of  a religious  faith, 
the  vast  majority  of  them  being  Mussulmans.  Ac- 
cording to  the  last  census,  the  Mohammedans  of 
Egypt  numbered  10,269,455;  the  Copts  came  next 
numerically  with  706,322;  the  Jews  claimed  38,635 
of  the  Egyptian  inhabitants,  while  175,576  of  the 
population  were  divided  among  Evangelical  Chris- 
tians, Greeks,  and  Catholics.  This  adherence  of 
virtually  the  whole  student  population  to  some  dis- 
tinct, religious  belief  marks  a decided  contrast  to 
the  West  where,  in  America  at  least,  not  more  than 
about  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  prepara- 
tory schools  and  colleges  are  members  of  churches. 

The  contrast,  however,  between  the  Egyptian  and 
European  is  not  so  vital  in  the  number  of  religious 
adherents  as  in  the  relation  of  these  professions  to 
mental  growth  and  intellectual  culture.  To  the 
Moslem,  his  faith  is  not  a religion  only,  it  is  a social 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


37 


system  involving  every  act  of  his  life  from  infancy 
to  the  grave.  It  is  a fixed,  arbitrary,  infallible  au- 
thority, binding  his  every  action  through  mandates 
of  divine  revelation  from  the  Arabian  Prophet,  and 
written  in  the  Koran.  In  this  exclusive  and  seclu- 
sive  idea  of  all  religious  and  social  authority  center- 
ing in  the  sacred  books  of  Islam,  the  child  of  the 
devout  Moslem  home  lives  and  moves  and  has  his 
being  throughout  his  early  and  susceptible  years. 
He  is  not,  like  the  Westerner,  a religionist  because 
he  chooses  to  he.  He  has  no  choice  in  the  matter. 
In  the  ear  of  the  new  born  babe,  the  Mohammedan 
father  whispers,  “There  is  no  God  hut  God,  and  Ma- 
homet is  his  Prophet.”  In  his  pleasures,  in  his 
work,  in  his  marriage,  and  at  his  death  the  Koranic 
injunctions  are  always  predominant,  while  the  ever 
present  Mosque  and  Sheikh  never  permit  him  to 
forget  for  an  hour  the  sovereignty  of  the  Moslem 
religion.  Indeed,  until  recently,  apostasy  from  the 
faith  of  Mahomet  was  punishable  by  death.  The 
only  chance  to  escape  from  Islam  is  through  de-na- 
tionalization, ostracism,  and  a life-long  martyrdom. 

The  loss  of  voluntariness  and  individual  choice  of 
religious  belief  is  no  small  loss  for  the  Egyptian. 
While  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  in  the  year 
1913  there  were  forty  thousand  students  out  of  at 
least  a total  of  250,000  in  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing, who  voluntarily  took  up  the  study  of  the  Bible, 
Christianity’s  text  hook,  practically  every  Moslem 
student  in  every  Egyptian  school  of  every  grade  was 
required  to  study  the  Koran  from  two  to  five  hours 
each  week  in  the  curriculum,  in  addition  to  its  use 
in  connection  with  the  prescribed  prayers  of  Islam 
five  times  a day.  In  1910  in  the  native  “kuttabs” 


38  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


of  Egypt,  there  were  5,565  pupils  who  were  able 
to  recite  by  heart  the  whole  of  the  Koran ; 4,076  could 
recite  tliree-fourths  of  it;  5,355  could  give  one-half 
of  it,  while  tens  of  thousands  had  committed  to  mem- 
ory a large  proportion  of  this  hook.  These  exer- 
cises represented  a mental  feat  rather  than  a 
religious  education.  I have  found  it  difficult  to  se- 
cure from  students,  who  could  give  their  sacred  hook 
verbatim,  a clear  statement  of  just  what  Moham- 
medanism means  in  its  twentieth  century  relation- 
ships. 

I fear  that  the  Western  college  youth  would  be 
decidedly  embarrassed  if  he  were  to  he  matched 
against  the  Moslem  youth  regarding  the  literal 
knowledge  of  their  respective  religious  books.  But 
the  Western  student  gains  something  over  the  Mos- 
lem in  real  grasp  and  religious  interest  regarding 
the  principles  of  religion.  The  study  of  the  Bible 
and  of  religious  philosophy  is  more  often  a pleas- 
ure than  a penance  with  students  whose  inclinations 
and  desires  lead  them  to  its  unrequired  investiga- 
tion. I have  seen  Moslem  boys  nod  sleepily  for 
hours  over  the  endless  repetitions  of  the  sacred  laws 
of  their  faith,  resembling  not  a little  the  attitude  of 
Western  students  at  compulsory  prayers  which  are 
now  being  replaced  so  largely  by  voluntary  reli- 
gious exercises.  It  is  a fair  question  whether  there 
is  not  more  real  moral  and  spiritual  dynamic  for 
leadership  and  permeating  influence,  in  40,000  stu- 
dents who  study  a religious  book  and  engage  in  the 
promoting  of  its  principles  because  they  really  en- 
joy it,  than  there  is  in  250,000  who  might  be  required 
by  law  to  study  daily,  and  that  in  a manner  not 
intended  to  arouse  their  intellectual  or  human  in- 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


39 


terest.  At  any  rate  this  is  a decided  contrast  be- 
tween the  religious  education  of  the  East  and  the 
West,  a condition  to  be  reckoned  with  in  any  com- 
parison of  Oriental  with  Occidental  student  life. 

What  are  the  results  of  these  two  systems?  By 
their  fruits  must  educational  processes  be  known. 

We  observe  first  that  the  Mohammedan  boy  fur- 
nishes a thought  provoking  example  for  the  West- 
erner. Religious  seriousness  is  never  a joke  to  the 
Egyptian.  He  does  not  apologize  for  being  reli- 
gious, in  fact  religion  to  him  is  as  natural  as  breath- 
ing. He  may  not  understand  the  intricacies  of  the 
reasonings  of  the  medieval  school  men  of  El  Azhar, 
hut  he  is  certainly  affected  in  his  religious  life  by 
the  spirit  of  Islam  as  represented  in  his  prayers 
and  reverential  habits.  It  may  seem  pietistic  to 
the  youth  of  Europe  or  America  to  find  the  students 
of  Egypt  stopping  each  day  for  periods  of  prayer 
and  communal  devotion  in  the  Mosque  to  which  their 
schools  are  joined.  To  the  impartial  mind,  how- 
ever, there  is  aroused  a sense  of  consistency, 
attended  with  real  respect,  in  witnessing  the  de- 
votional seriousness  of  Egyptian  young  men. 

In  spite  of  the  partial  revival  in  Bible  study  among 
the  college  men  of  the  West  at  present,  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  if  the  average  student  in  Oxford  or 
Harvard  were  suddenly  asked  to  find,  for  example, 
Ezekiel  IV  :13,  he  would  be  greatly  facilitated  in  his 
search  if  the  questioner  would  give  page  and  para- 
graph, and  in  some  cases  even  more  explicit  direc- 
tion as  to  whether  the  passage  was  most  likely  to  be 
discovered  in  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  masters  of  boys’  schools  in  all  parts  of 
Europe  and  the  United  States  tell  me  of  most  amaz- 


40  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


ing  things  concerning  the  utter  ignorance  of  many 
of  their  pupils  regarding  the  simplest  facts  of  the 
Christian  scriptures;  “veritable  heathen”  is  the  de- 
scription by  one  principal  of  a great  preparatory 
school  in  New  England.  I have  repeatedly  found 
in  the  great  state  institutions  of  America  literally 
hundreds  of  students  who,  either  have  not  possessed 
a Bible  or  who  have  never  given  their  sacred  book 
an  hour’s  consecutive  study  in  their  lives. 

In  one  Christian  University  not  long  ago,  I dis- 
covered a group  of  seven  students  who  were  evi- 
dently seriously  studying  first  principles  with  an 
idea  of  personal  betterment  and  the  understanding 
of  historical  and  civilized  thought.  As  one  of  the 
students  described  to  me  their  experience,  it  was 
found  upon  examination  that  three  of  these  young 
men  claimed  to  be  pantheists,  another  one  a Jew, 
one  an  agnostic,  one  a Catholic,  while  a seventh  mem- 
ber of  the  group  could  not  be  readily  classified  and 
was  called  a Vegetarian.  These  young  men  had 
been  entering  into  amazing  discussions  ranging  all 
the  way  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  to  the 
present  time.  By  chance  one  student  not  long  be- 
fore had  suggested  that  the  Bible  might  throw  some 
light  upon  these  elemental  questions.  A census  was 
taken  and  it  was  found  that  only  one  man  in  the 
group  possessed  a Bible  and  this  one,  the  Vege- 
tarian, had  carried  it  in  the  bottom  of  his  trunk, 
back  and  forth  from  his  college  to  his  home  for 
three  years,  never  having  taken  it  out  but  once. 
The  effect  of  such  distressing  and  limiting  ignorance 
concerning  the  principles  of  moral  and  religious  civ- 
ilization, is  sufficiently  embarrassing  to  the  present 
generation  of  Western  students,  who  would  nat- 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


41 


urally  be  expected  to  have  some  idea  of  the  princi- 
ples of  their  national  religion.  But  the  results  upon 
the  next  generation  not  only  in  the  inheritance  of 
this  ignorance,  but  in  the  deprivation  of  inherited, 
spiritual  habits,  are  certain  to  be  ominous.  Even  if 
religion  was  omitted  from  the  discussion,  to  neglect 
the  Bible  as  a means  of  educational  culture  is  an 
appalling  literary  crime.  For  the  testimony  of  Bus- 
kin is  the  universal  witness  of  practically  every 
great  educationalist.  “All  that  I have  taught  of 
art,  everything  that  I have  written,  whatever  great- 
ness there  has  been  in  any  thought  of  mine,  what- 
ever I have  done  in  my  life,  has  simply  been  due 
to  the  fact  that,  when  I was  a child,  my  mother  daily 
read  with  me  a part  of  the  Bible,  and  daily  made 
me  learn  a part  of  it  by  heart.” 

But  while  the  Westerner  is  at  a disadvantage  when 
compared  with  the  Egyptian  in  the  securing  of  this 
early  training  in  his  sacred  book,  he  is  found  to  be 
in  advance  in  many  cases  in  the  spirit  of  his  religion. 
He  may  not  accept  so  universally  and  openly,  reli- 
gious allegiance,  but  he  moves  in  an  atmosphere 
which  has  been  charged  for  generations  with  the 
elastic  spirit  of  Western  religion  as  it  has  adapted 
itself  to  the  changing  necessities  of  the  times.  While 
there  are  certain  expressions  of  this  faith  which  he 
utterly  dislikes  and  repudiates,  such  as  its  inquisi- 
torial and  dogmatic  narrowness,  he  is  constantly  im- 
pressed by  examples,  public  and  private,  of  the  fresh 
energy  of  Christianity  as  applied  to  the  transformed 
face  of  a new  world.  The  student  who  may  have 
disliked  thoroughly  the  theological  aspect  of  Chris- 
tianity in  his  boyhood,  is  now  frequently  a leader  in 
one  of  the  multiple  phases  of  social  service  carried 


42  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


on  in  the  name  of  religion,  but  where  the  emphasis  is 
not  upon  legalistic,  theological  sanctions  but  prac- 
ticable serviceableness  to  others.  In  North  Amer- 
ican colleges  there  are  thousands  of  students  to-day 
who  are  finding  an  outlet  for  their  unexpressed  reli- 
gious consciousness  in  those  departments  of  life 
where  religion  is  directly  attached  to  the  world’s 
work,  not  to  speak  of  their  growing  respect  for  a 
faith  which  reveals  the  power  of  transferring  its 
emphasis  from  a realm  of  Church  history  and  sys- 
tematic theology  to  one  of  social  uplift  and  practical 
morality,  as  these  latter  expressions  are  demanded 
by  the  advancing  times. 

It  is  at  this  point  of  readjustment  to  the  life  of 
to-day  that  the  Egyptian,  educated  Moslem  and  stu- 
dent are  now  struggling  with  their  religious  hook 
and  their  religious  practise.  Many  attempts  are  be- 
ing made  to  rationalize  Mohammedanism  which  was 
clearly  a faith  formed  to  fit  the  seventh  century 
needs,  so  that  it  will  meet  the  conditions  and  the  de- 
mands of  the  twentieth  century.  If  the  Sheikh  class 
and  the  El  Azhar  have  their  way,  there  will  occur 
no  change,  and  the  Koran,  with  its  medieval  rules 
and  literature,  will  continue  to  be  a clogging  weight 
upon  the  feet  of  the  young  man,  who  would  run  his 
race,  unhampered,  if  not  accelerated  by  his  religion. 

Evidences  are  not  lacking  that  this  straggle  for 
individual  opinion  and  individual  liberty  of  decision 
will  eventually  win  over  the  dead  worship  of  forms 
and  authorities.  The  man  of  New  Egypt  is  just  en- 
tering his  heretofore  undiscovered  world  of  sci- 
ence and  vocational  knowledge.  He  will  demand 
and  he  will  eventually  gain  a regenerated  Islam,  or 


OLD  EGYPT  IN  TRAINING 


43 


after  passing  through  a stage  of  agnosticism  and 
uncertainty,  he  will  turn  to  another  religious  belief 
that  will  allow  him  breathing  space  in  a larger  room 
of  thought  and  religion. 


IV 


Reforms  in  Egyptian  Education 

FITZGERALD  said  of  Carlyle  that  he  had  sat  for 
years  quite  comfortably  in  his  study  at  Chelsea, 
fiercely  scolding  the  world  for  not  being  heroic  but 
without  being  very  precise  in  telling  people  how. 
Lest  similar  charge  should  be  laid  against  this  dis- 
cussion of  Egyptian  training  by  those  faithful  and 
truly  efficient  educationalists  who  have  been  strug- 
gling for  years,  and  with  no  small  result,  with  the 
complex  problems  of  race,  official  relationship  and 
religion,  I shall  make  bold  to  suggest  several  lines 
of  necessary  reform.  These  changes  are  recognized, 
in  part  at  least,  by  the  educational  leaders  of  Egypt, 
but  until  more  decided  advances  are  gained,  the 
problem  of  the  intellectual  training  of  Egyptian 
youth  will  continue  to  be  one  of  the  most  perplexing 
matters  in  the  Near  East. 

The  first  need  of  Egypt  educationally  touches  the 
domestic  circle — the  home  of  the  child — the  wife 
and  the  mother.  In  Egypt  as  elsewhere 

“Man’s  cause  is  woman’s; 

They  rise  or  fall  together, 

Dwarfed  or  Godlike,  bond  or  free.  ’ ’ 

In  the  Ministry  of  Public  Works  in  Cairo  re- 
cently, a Moslem  of  the  higher  official  class  was 
heard  to  say  that  his  mother  had  never  stepped 
outside  of  her  house,  not  even  to  cross  the  street. 

44 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  45 


It  is  not  uncommon  even  now  in  certain  parts  of 
Egypt,  for  the  laboring  man  to  lock  up  his  wife 
and  children  before  going  to  his  work  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  the  mud-built  hut  is  made  a prison  house 
until  his  return  at  night.  Upon  being  asked  what 
she  did  all  day,  a Mohammedan  woman  of  the  bet- 
ter class  replied,  “I  sit  on  that  couch  for  a time, 
and  when  I get  tired  I cross  over  and  sit  on  that 
one.  ’ ’ 

In  the  light  of  such  conditions  as  these,  one  can 
better  understand  the  reports  of  the  last  census 
to  the  effect  that  but  two  in  a thousand  Egyptian 
women  can  read  and  write. 

But  this  ignorance  and  seclusion  of  women  (al- 
though prevented  from  attendance  at  public  wor- 
ship in  the  Mosque  as  well  as  from  first  hand  knowl- 
edge of  the  Koran)  have  not  destroyed  their  well- 
nigh  fanatical  adherence  to  the  Moslem  faith. 

The  chief  knowledge,  however,  of  the  Moslem 
woman  concerning  Islam  has  to  do  with  her  mar- 
riage laws. 

The  mother  endeavors  to  keep  the  son  in  the  Ha- 
rem as  long  as  possible,  shielding  him  carefully  from 
any  outside  influences  that  might  warp  his  mind  from 
his  national  faith.  The  women  and  children,  as  a re- 
sult, live  in  a parochial  world,  quite  apart,  surely 
beyond  the  influence  of  enlightenment  and  having 
few  interests  outside  the  realm  of  petty  gossip  or 
intrigue.  These  conditions  have  fostered  in  the 
mind  of  Egyptian  childhood  the  inferiority  of  wom- 
anhood, at  the  same  time  stultifying  the  youthful 
mind  and  growth  by  associations  that  have  little  if 
any  value  in  the  way  of  early  education.  If  it  is 
true  that  the  social  and  personal  conceptions  of  a 


46  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


child’s  home  world  are  the  permanent  influences 
not  to  be  shaken  off  in  after  life,  these  untoward 
early  surroundings  are  among  the  first  changes  to 
be  wrought  in  the  education  of  New  Egypt. 

Beginnings  have  been  made  and  some  of  them 
very  propitiously.  “It  is  not  coming  with  a rush 
yet,”  said  the  principal  of  a training  college  for 
girls  in  Cairo,  but  for  that  matter  what  has  ever 
come  in  a rush  in  any  Oriental  land?  Last  year 
instruction  was  given  to  22,002  girls  in  2,867  “kut- 
tabs”  (small  village  schools  usually  connected  with 
a Mosque),  while  thirteen  of  the  Government  “kut- 
tabs”  have  been  especially  set  apart  for  women 
students  and  now  have  an  attendance  of  2,020  girls 
with  forty-two  trained  women  teachers.  In  one  of 
these  schools  for  teachers  which  I visited,  there 
were  138  applications  in  a single  year  to  fill  thirteen 
vacancies. 

Schools  for  girls  are  also  being  founded  by  na- 
tive initiative,  through  the  inspiration  and  exam- 
ple of  the  Government  institutions.  A large 
institution  for  the  training  of  women  is  just  now 
being  opened  in  Alexandria  by  the  Egyptian  Gov- 
ernment and  the  appurtenances  for  modern  educa- 
tion compare  favorably  with  those  of  Western 
schools.  The  missionary  institutions  for  girls  con- 
ducted by  the  American  Mission  are  among  the 
most  flourishing  and  efficient  of  the  girls’  schools 
of  Egypt.  Although  the  majority  of  the  students 
in  these  schools  are  from  Coptic  families,  there 
is  a growing  tendency  for  Moslem  parents  to  send 
their  daughters  to  the  missionary  institutions, 
where  at  present  there  are  about  thirty  per  cent,  of 
the  students  who  are  members  of  the  Mohammedan 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  47 


faith.  A decade  ago  it  was  very  uncommon  to  find 
Moslem  girls  in  the  missionary  colleges. 

The  English  Government  struck  a note  of  re- 
form, not  educational  only,  but  social  and  national 
as  well,  when  in  1901  it  began  sending  Egyptian 
girls  to  Europe  to  be  trained  as  teachers.  The 
difficulties  confronting  the  Ministry  of  Education 
were  many  and  varied.  The  father  of  the  girl  first 
had  to  be  dealt  with  and  convinced  that  no  attempt 
would  be  made  to  destroy  the  girl’s  religious  con- 
victions. He  was  not  at  all  certain  of  the  wisdom 
of  the  rather  revolutionary  concession  in  allowing 
his  daughter  to  leave  his  home  before  marriage. 
"When  the  girl  returned  to  Egypt  and  secured  a self- 
supporting  position  as  teacher,  and  when  the  father 
beheld  in  his  daughter  not  a perverted  Moslem  but 
a more  devoted  member  of  the  traditional  faith,  a 
long  step  was  taken  in  the  education  of  women  in 
Egypt.  One  of  these  fathers  expressed  his  satis- 
faction with  the  wise  and  impartial  attitude  of  the 
English  Government  when  he  said  to  Mr.  Dunlop, 
who  asked  him  concerning  the  results  of  European 
education  upon  his  daughter:  “You  have  not  only 
trained  her  mind,  but  you  have  changed  her  heart. 
She  speaks  more  kindly  to  her  mother  in  the  home ; 
she  is  more  thoughtful;  she  is  a better  Moslem 
girl.  ’ ’ 

It  is  to  the  great  credit  of  Egyptian  women  that 
of  the  entire  number  of  girls  who  have  been  sent  to 
Europe  in  their  teens  to  be  educated,  suddenly  de- 
prived of  the  close  home  restrictions  and  guardian- 
ship, at  the  same  time  subjected  to  many  tempta- 
tions in  a foreign  country,  no  breath  of  scandal  has 
attached  to  any  one  of  them. 


48  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


There  is  every  indication  that  this  reform  will 
sweep  rapidly  through  the  entire  nation.  The  se- 
clusion of  women  is  very  largely  an  economic  mat- 
ter in  Egypt.  It  has  been  considered  not  only 
impossible  but  also  disgraceful  for  women  of 
Egypt,  other  than  those  of  the  lower  classes,  to  earn 
their  own  living.  The  departure  means  that  Egyp- 
tian women  are  finding  an  honorable  possibility 
of  livelihood,  other  than  that  of  being  a wife  under 
circumstances  that  are  often  adverse  and  cruel. 
This  new  development  signifies  also  that  children 
are  to  be  trained  in  homes  in  which  modern  enlight- 
enment and  some  degree  of  equality  and  culture 
are  present.  In  this  land  where  the  word  “feloos” 
(money)  is  the  sovereign  and  omnipresent  word 
which  one  will  hear  on  the  street,  in  the  cafes, 
among  the  Fellaheen  and  in  the  homes  of  the  Pa- 
shas, the  power  of  a woman  to  obtain  a salary  of 
from  12  to  15  pounds  a month  produces  a real  im- 
pression upon  Egyptian  men.  It  raises  the  respect 
for  woman  by  giving  her  a money  value. 

Furthermore,  the  need  and  desire  for  educated 
wives  and  daughters  will  be  increasingly  fostered 
as  increasing  attention  and  appropriations  are 
given  to  this  branch  of  education.  There  has  been 
a tendency  on  the  part  of  the  more  enlightened 
fathers  to  send  their  boys  to  school  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible in  order  to  place  them  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  stultifying  influences  of  the  Harem.  Give  the 
mothers  education  and  the  whole  situation  is  trans- 
formed. The  dead  weight  of  the  early  and  sense- 
less memory  work  of  Egyptian  youth  will  be  lifted. 
Girls  who  are  learning  other  things  than  the  unin- 
telligible phrases  of  the  Koran,  are  certain  to  im- 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  49 


part  such  knowledge,  as  daughters,  sisters,  and 
mothers,  to  their  respective  households.  Women 
who  learn  housewifery,  methods  of  modern  cooking, 
sewing,  and  sanitation  in  the  domestic  economy 
schools,  are  bound  to  cast  about  the  home  upon 
their  return  the  atmosphere  of  a civilized  commu- 
nity. The  old  time  picture  of  the  Oriental  woman 
spending  her  hours  upon  divans,  eating  sweetmeats 
and  indulging  in  petty  and  degrading  gossip  with 
the  servants  or  with  women  as  ignorant  as  herself, 
will  be  changed.  The  new  woman  of  Egypt  will  be 
a companion  rather  than  a slave  or  a toy  of  her 
husband.  Marriage  will  advance  from  the  stage  of 
a paltry  trade  in  bodies  to  something  like  a real 
union,  involving  respect  towards  the  woman  by 
both  sons  and  fathers,  while  in  a new  pride  of  re- 
lationship the  woman  herself  will  be  discovered. 

Scarcely  second  to  this  reform  in  woman’s  educa- 
tion is  the  need  of  carrying  the  training  of  Egyp- 
tian youth  beyond  its  mechanism  into  the  realm 
where  students  are  increasingly  induced  to  think 
for  themselves. 

One  can  hardly  overstate  the  difficulties  under 
which  the  English  government  has  gained  the  pres- 
ent success  in  Egyptian  education.  The  patience, 
justice  and  wisdom  inherent  in  the  British  charac- 
ter are  evident  on  all  sides.  I visited  virtually  the 
entire  sweep  of  schools  now  under  the  Government 
supervision,  together  with  many  native  schools 
which  afford  a striking  comparison.  With  pro- 
found and  growing  respect  I have  seen  the  pupil  of 
the  antiquated  and  independent  native  “kuttab” 
taken  to  the  Government  “kuttab”  with  its  mod- 
ernized equipment  of  teachers,  text  books,  and 


50  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


buildings;  I have  followed  the  same  class  of  stu- 
dent through  the  new  primary  schools  which  com- 
pare favorably  with  those  in  which  "Western  boys 
and  girls  are  being  educated.  I have  inspected  the 
secondary  educational  processes  under  Western 
methods,  where  for  four  years  Egyptian  youth  have 
learned  not  simply  the  principles  of  underlying 
college  instruction,  but  also  the  personal  relation- 
ships involved  in  a college  community;  then  I have 
visited  the  higher  colleges  of  Egypt,  the  colleges 
for  doctors,  lawyers,  mechanics,  business  men,  civil 
and  mechanical  engineers,  where  but  for  the  preva- 
lence of  the  native  tarboosh  and  occasionally  the 
turban  and  flowing  gown  of  a Sheikh,  I could  have 
imagined  myself  in  a finishing  school  in  London, 
New  York  or  Paris.  To  think  of  these  five  thou- 
sand or  more  students  enjoying  these  privileges  of 
specialistic  practical  education  when  two  decades 
ago  there  existed  only  one  school  for  advanced  vo- 
cational training  in  this  country,  is  to  be  pro- 
foundly impressed  with  what  has  already  been 
wrought. 

But  Government  education  in  Egypt,  like  Gov- 
ernment education  elsewhere,  has  not  been  free  and 
is  not  yet  free  from  the  over-emphasis  of  mechan- 
ics, schedules,  and  lifeless  systems  which  are  never 
in  themselves  education,  but  rather  the  means 
thereof.  It  is  a saying  current  in  America  that  at 
Oxford  it  requires  a formal  vote  of  the  Vice  Chan- 
cellor and  ten  college  heads,  professors  and  M.A.’s 
to  get  a book  out  of  the  Bodlean  Library.  How- 
ever suppository  this  statement  may  be,  no  little  of 
the  English  tendency  to  routine  and  “red  tape”  is 
evident  in  Egyptian  schools.  Indeed  the  Govern- 


At  a monastery  school  in  Mandalay 


Outside  a coffee-house  in  a mountain  village,  in  Kabylia.  Under  French  control  much 
of  the  old-time  barbarity  of  the  region  is  passing  away 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  51 


ment  has  been  partially  responsible  for  this  “ten 
day  memory”  exhibited  so  often  in  Egyptian  ex- 
aminations. For  many  years,  Government  offices 
were  necessarily  the  end  of  school  training,  since 
every  country  must  have  officials  with  some  kind  of 
mental  capability.  Now  that  the  Government  offices 
are  beginning  to  be  over-filled,  the  results  of  pre- 
paring students  for  special  positions  rather  than 
for  life  are  apparent.  Because  of  this  objective, 
and  perhaps  more  especially  because  of  the  native 
custom  and  traditions  in  regard  to  learning,  we  find 
too  often  that  education  is  epitomized  in  schedules 
hung  upon  the  wall,  in  certificates  and  statistics 
which  are  signs  of  educational  progress,  rather  than 
the  most  conducive  influences  toward  thoughtful  and 
resourceful  leadership. 

Teachers  are  confronted  with  the  temptation  to 
give  their  students  notes  to  copy  verbatim  instead 
of  insisting  by  thought-producing  questions,  by 
personal  association,  and  by  the  narration  of  inci- 
dent, upon  stirring  the  mental  faculties  and  indi- 
vidual imagination.  The  Egyptian  student  is  per- 
fectly delighted  if  he  has  a certificate  in  sight  or  an 
examination  to  pass.  As  soon  as  he  has  gained  the 
certificate  and  passed  the  examination  he,  as  one 
of  the  leading  educators  of  the  country  told  me, 
closes  his  books  forever.  He  has  finished  them. 
Does  he  not  hold  his  certificate  in  his  hand?  Edu- 
cational training  means  to  him  not  knowledge  as 
such,  but  knowledge  to  answer  examination  ques- 
tions, for  the  sake  of  a piece  of  paper  which  will 
open  the  doors  of  a remunerative  position.  The 
average  student  estimates  his  education  in  purely 
comparative  and  economic  terms. 


52  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


It  is  not  strange  with  this  pressure  upon  the  in- 
structors that  these  men  incline  to  give  to  the  stu- 
dents their  knowledge  in  the  form  in  which  they 
demand  it,  rather  than  to  try  to  swim  against  the 
tide.  The  most  popular  teacher  in  the  Egyptian 
schools  to-day  is  the  man  who  can  dictate  in  the 
loudest,  clearest  voice,  the  greatest  amount  of  notes 
to  be  taken  down  word  for  word,  and  in  a manner 
requiring  the  minimum  of  original  thoughtfulness 
on  the  part  of  the  student.  These  notes  are  not  to 
be  taken  home  and  digested,  but  rather  to  be  kept 
inviolate  until  a month  before  examination  time 
when  the  student  works  day  and  night  to  commit  to 
memory  every  word  and  punctuation. 

An  instructor  in  a law  school  told  me  that  the 
great  aim  of  the  students  of  his  classes  seemed  to 
be  to  secure  his,  the  teacher’s,  personal  opinion, 
which  opinion  would  be  accepted  without  question. 
He  told  me  that  one  rarely  finds  anything  but  an 
unanimous  decision  in  an  Egyptian  law  court.  The 
majority  vote  was  a common  occurrence.  Few 
cases  of  persistent  individual  opinion  occur.  While 
at  Cambridge  or  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  one 
might  find  almost  as  many  opinions  as  there  are 
men  in  the  circle,  in  institutions  like  El  Azhar  there 
is  but  one  opinion  possible,  and  that  a constricted, 
traditional  one,  founded  upon  infallible  rules,  and 
the  findings  of  commentators.  The  general  picture 
of  Egyptian  education  has  been,  for  centuries,  a 
group  of  young  men  sitting  reverently  in  a circle 
about  a teacher  whose  first  and  constant  purpose 
seemed  to  be  the  filling  of  their  minds  with  a great 
mass  of  information,  having  little  or  no  relation 
either  to  the  individual  or  to  the  National  conscious- 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  53 


ness.  The  result  upon  student  thinking  is  obvious ; 
as  Coleridge  said,  “to  sit  still  and  be  pumped  into, 
is  never  an  exhilarating  process.” 

We  find,  therefore,  the  Egyptian  student,  not  con- 
fused by  the  tides  of  life  that  surge  about  him,  so 
much  as  by  a type  of  mind  that  has  not  learned  to 
be  inquisitive  or  original.  He  is,  furthermore,  often 
handicapped  by  being  asked  to  present  his  thoughts 
in  a foreign  language.  A medical  student  told  me 
how  his  brother  failed  to  pass  his  examination  for 
his  degree,  not  because  the  young  man  did  not  know 
his  subject,  but  because  he  could  not  express  him- 
self in  English,  which  was  the  language  of  his  ex- 
amination. He  could  only  put  down  certain  phrases 
and  combinations  of  terms  which  he  had  learned  by 
heart,  trusting  that  by  some  happy  chance  he  might 
hit  upon  the  right  phrase. 

The  Egyptian  student’s  powers  of  observation 
are  also  decidedly  untrained.  One  of  the  eminent 
physicians  of  research  at  the  Medical  School  in 
Cairo  showed  me  how  difficult  he  found  it  to  teach 
his  students  to  observe  the  simplest  and  most  com- 
mon phenomena.  He  would  ask  a young  man  to 
describe  a certain  object  or  a section  of  a body,  and 
the  student  would  describe  it  in  faultless  English. 
He  would  then  bring  the  young,  embryonic  doctor  to 
the  table  in  the  laboratory  and  show  him  the  object 
underneath  the  microscope,  asking  him  what  it  was. 
It  frequently  happened  that  the  student  would  gaze 
at  the  object  blankly,  having  no  conception  that  he 
had  ever  studied  regarding  the  object  under  his  eye. 

I find,  moreover,  little  philosophy  of  life  or  con- 
duct that  is  not  learned  or  borrowed  or  committed 
to  memory.  Ask  a certain  question  of  a Moslem 


54  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


educated  man  in  any  part  of  Egypt,  especially  con- 
cerning science  and  religion  and  he  will  give  you 
identically  the  same  answer.  It  is  the  answer  which 
has  been  prescribed  and  handed  out  by  traditional 
Mohammedan  teaching,  and  any  personal  opinion 
or  individual  bent  of  thought  is  quite  out  of  the 
question.  The  Egyptian  student  has  not  reached 
that  stage  in  the  educative  scale  which  John  Locke 
refers  to  as  a stage  of  “clear  ideas.”  Even  the 
students  who  are  sent  to  Europe  for  a broadening 
of  knowledge  and  for  research  work  rarely  take  full 
advantage  of  their  opportunity.  An  Egyptian 
young  man  of  my  acquaintance  who  was  sent  to  Ox- 
ford for  three  years  that  he  might  acquire  the  foun- 
dations of  the  training  for  an  Orientalist  teacher, 
came  back  to  Egypt  without  having  given  an  hour 
of  attention  to  any  other  language  than  that  of  Ara- 
bic. An  Egyptian  Egyptologist  is  as  yet  unknown. 
Anything  like  higher  criticism  of  the  Koran,  for 
example,  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  the 
Moslem  student.  His  continuous  inquiry,  like  a re- 
frain, is  “what  does  the  Koran  say?”  as  his  per- 
petual excuse  for  the  absence  of  knowledge  consists 
in  asserting:  “I  have  not  yet  learned  that  in  my 
book.”  When  an  educated  Mohammedan  explains 
to  you  how  every  modern  scientific  achievement  has 
been  foreshadowed  and  explained  in  the  Koran,  for 
example,  the  invention  of  the  automobile,  by  quoting 
to  you  the  phrase  of  Mahomet,  “and  they  shall  be 
drawn  by  horses  and  camels  and  other  things,”  it  is 
a blank  day  for  the  training  of  the  mind.  One  must 
conclude,  despite  many  signs  of  progress,  that  the 
Egyptian  student  has  not  yet  grasped  the  true  mean- 
ing of  education. 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  55 


This  stereotyped  tendency  of  mind  is  besieged  at 
present  by  a decidedly  strong  influence  in  the  form 
of  new  schools  for  practical  vocations.  In  an  inter- 
view with  Lord  Kitchener,  I was  impressed  with  the 
way  in  which  he  had  planned  for  agricultural  train- 
ing on  government  farms  for  the  boys  and  schools 
of  housewifery  for  the  girls.  “The  training  of  par- 
ents to  care  properly  for  children,”  said  he,  “is 
one  of  the  chief  present  needs.”  Practical  educa- 
tion is  bringing  about  a new  type  of  Egyptian  stu- 
dent, not  a young  man  who  knows  a lot  of  words 
but  can  do  nothing,  but  a man  who  may  not  be  able 
to  recite  so  much  but  can  at  least  do  one  thing  well. 

During  the  past  five  years  institutions  for  train- 
ing in  agriculture,  engineering,  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial arts,  have  been  slowly  but  steadily  growing 
in  favor.  Now  the  shop  is  really  in  competition  with 
the  study.  The  educational  formula  is  beginning 
to  be  worked  out  in  life,  it  is  being  brought  into 
contact  with  Reality.  The  mechanics  and  engineers 
needed  for  the  New  Egypt  cannot  be  furnished  rap- 
idly enough  to  supply  the  demand.  Young  men 
are  appreciating  that  an  engineer’s  job  at  three 
times  the  salary  of  a clerk  has  compensating  advan- 
tages, and  the  call  which  is  largely  economic  is  con- 
stantly growing  louder  in  this  direction. 

There  are  at  least  two  causes  for  this  advance  in 
the  “bread-and-butter”  studies.  One  of  them  con- 
sists in  the  fact  that  of  late  government  offices  have 
not  been  sufficient  to  go  around  amongst  the  gradu- 
ates holding  primary  and  secondary  school  certif- 
icates. The  other  cause  lies  in  the  leadership  and 
intelligent  enthusiasm  of  Sydney  H.  Wells,  who  is 
bringing  years  of  practical  experience  to  the  devel- 


56  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


opment  of  schools  so  directly  associated  with 
Egypt’s  present  need.  Five  thousand  students  are 
now  studying  and  working  in  the  twenty-six  schools 
of  Egypt  devoted  to  technical  and  agricultural 
training.  In  these  institutions  I saw  literally  hun- 
dreds of  young  men  “learning  by  doing,”  substi- 
tuting laboratory  for  memory  work,  and  engaging 
in  practical  tests  requiring  original  thoughtfulness 
and  invention.  Examinations  were  found  in  these 
schools  of  course,  hut  at  least  fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
examination  was  upon  work  outside  the  classroom, 
work  that  could  not  be  imitated  or  copied  from 
notes,  much  of  it  in  the  workshop  and  in  the  fields. 

Nor  does  this  kind  of  training  destroy  the  power 
of  the  Egyptian  student  to  work  for  an  ideal.  Of 
course,  “a  cow  is  just  a cow,”  said  Professor  John 
R.  Commons  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  “and 
can  never  become  a Winged  Victory,  but  within  her 
limits  she  is  capable  of  approaching  an  ideal.  And 
more  than  that,  she  is  an  ideal  that  every  farmer 
and  farmer’s  boy — the  despised  slave  and  helots  of 
Greece — can  aspire  to.  But,  most  of  all,  this  ideal- 
ism of  a perfect  product  is  the  only  way  of  render- 
ing a perfect  service  to  others.  The  same  is  true 
of  all  other  branches  of  applied  science.  They  are 
all  teachers  of  esthetics  to  the  common  man.  And 
it  is  only  as  a science  gets  applied  that  its  idealism 
gets  democratized.  Utilitarianism  is  the  democracy 
of  idealism.” 

The  vitality  of  these  schools  in  a country  where 
agriculture,  and  trades  germaine  thereto,  are  of  in- 
evitable importance,  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
Hon.  Harvey  W.  Wiley,  ex-Chief  Chemist  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  is  fond 


EEFOEMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  57 


of  telling  tlie  following  story  that  his  father  used 
to  relate  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  boys  to  remain 
at  home  rather  than  go  to  the  city : 

“A  farmer  with  three  sons  was  asked  what  he  proposed  to 
make  of  them.  He  replied:  “John  is  the  brightest  of  my 
boys,  the  most  industrious,  anxious  to  work,  and  quick  to 
learn.  I am  going  to  make  a farmer  of  him.  Sam  would 
rather  talk  than  work,  and  is  fond  of  telling  all  he  knows 
and  much  that  he  imagines.  I am  going  to  make  a lawyer 
of  him.  Thomas  is  the  laziest  one  of  all  my  boys.  In 
fact,  he  is  so  lazy  that  he  never  gets  into  any  trouble  of 
any  kind.  I am  going  to  make  a preacher  of  him.” 

There  is  decided  evidence  at  present  that  Egypt, 
likewise,  is  choosing  her  most  intelligent  sons  to  be 
her  farmer  leaders,  and  to  assist  in  laying  the  foun- 
dations of  her  growing  life.  Indeed,  her  commer- 
cial and  her  structural  enterprises  in  factory,  in 
field,  and  along  her  waterways,  give  the  best  possi- 
ble evidence  of  her  sensible  modem  educational 
system.  Not  that  her  schools  should  all  turn  voca- 
tional. Egypt  needs  no  additional  incentive  to  wor- 
ship wealth  or  make  a God  of  materialism.  This 
would  be  as  great  a mistake  as  certain  of  our  Amer- 
ican educational  institutions  are  inclined  to  make  at 
present  in  turning  out  mere  specialists  and  experts 
without  sufficient  fundamental  knowledge  or  train- 
ing to  make  their  specialism  vital  and  far-reaching 
in  their  own  or  their  country’s  development.  The 
body  of  learning,  both  mental  and  cultural,  must  be 
given  with  increasing  efficiency  and  extensiveness 
in  the  primary  and  secondary  schools,  if  the  youth 
of  our  day  is  to  become  anything  more  than  a super- 
ficial hand-worker  and  money-getter.  When,  even 
more  generally  than  at  present,  cultural  and  prac- 


58  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tical  training  join  hands  in  a kind  of  utilitarian 
idealism,  in  the  awakening  of  the  individual  both  to 
the  acquiring  of  personal  resourcefulness  and  to 
generous  and  serviceable  action  towards  the  com- 
munity, Egypt  will  be  liberated. 

The  teacher  is  the  key  to  this  generally  desired  ad- 
vance. Men  of  personality  and  teaching  ability 
must  be  raised  up  among  the  native  Egyptians,  men 
who  have  clear  ideas  of  what  the  object  of  education 
really  is,  and  who  know  how  to  apply  these  ideas  to 
the  practical  needs  of  Egypt.  Certain  teachers  with 
whom  I have  talked  in  this  country  remind  me  of  a 
confession  of  one  English  instructor  who  said:  “I 
was  a public  schoolmaster  for  nearly  twenty  years : 
and  now  that  it  is  over,  I sometimes  sit  and  wonder, 
rather  sadly,  I am  afraid,  what  we  were  all  about.” 

There  are  two  elements  indispensable  to  good 
teaching,  an  enthusiasm  for  one’s  subject  and  a love 
for  the  student.  The  utter  absence  of  one  or  both 
of  these  qualities  among  certain  teachers  of  Egyp- 
tian youth  has  made  it  possible  to  hear  such  despair- 
ing words  as  these  which  are  quoted  by  Douglas 
Sladen  from  an  English  master:  “It  is  impossible 

to  live  happily  in  Egypt  if  you  take  any  interest  in 
your  work.  You  must  treat  it  simply  as  a means 
to  getting  your  living.  ’ ’ 

Indeed,  many  teachers  both  English  and  Egyptian 
to  whom  I have  talked,  seem  to  have  lost  their  grip. 
The  keen  edge  of  emotional  interest  which  gives 
fascination  to  learning,  both  within  and  without  the 
classroom,  is  lacking.  I have  been  reminded  here 
of  the  appropriateness  of  a remark  of  a Harvard 
professor  who  described  the  spirit  of  this  oldest 
institution  in  America  by  saying:  “A  healthy 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  59 


spirit  of  pessimism  prevails  in  all  departments.” 
Now  I am  aware  that  it  is  no  easy  matter  to  keep 
up  a high  electrical  voltage,  either  mental  or  phys- 
ical, in  a country  where  climatically,  “nothing’s 
right  but  loafing,”  and  where  a considerable  por- 
tion of  the  day  is  given  to  sleeping.  But  the  thing 
which  interests  the  observer  of  Egyptian  education 
is  not  what  the  teachers  or  students  do  when  they 
are  asleep,  but  what  they  do  when  they  wake  up. 
An  old  Greek  professor  in  an  institution  which  I 
once  attended  used  to  drop  off  to  sleep  at  times  in 
the  warm  spring  months  and  frequently  some  one 
had  to  go  and  awaken  him  to  get  him  to  attend  his 
lectures.  But  we  always  noticed  that  after  one  of 
these  naps  he  usually  said  something  brilliant.  So 
true  was  this  that  there  used  to  be  a little  couplet 
going  about  entitled:  “When  Marvin  wakes!” 
While  I would  not  overdo  the  advocatus  diaboli 
business,  I have  been  impressed  at  times  with  the 
fact  that  much  of  the  brilliancy  and  aggressiveness 
of  a certain  type  of  teacher  here  is  exercised  in 
“slanging”  students  and  making  them  appreciate 
how  utterly  backward  and  good  for  nothing  they 
are.  One  must  confess  that  there  is  reason  for  such 
attitude,  but  the  pathetic  side  of  it  all  is,  that  real 
and  effective  teaching,  depending  quite  as  much  upon 
heart  interest  as  head  interest,  goes  out  of  the  win- 
dow when  this  mood  of  pessimism  and  unbelief  in 
pupils  comes  in  at  the  door.  As  the  old  French 
proverb  puts  it  “to  love  is  to  understand  every- 
thing,” and  if  I do  not  greatly  mistake  Egyptian 
students,  these  youth,  despite  many  handicaps  con- 
nected with  the  accumulating  vicissitudes  of  the 
country’s  checkered  history,  are  very  human,  and 


60  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


especially  susceptible  to  consideration  and  kindness. 
It  may  be  that  certain  Oriental  races  do  not  under- 
stand anything  but  bullying,  but  I am  emboldened 
to  think  and  remark  that  no  Oriental  race  is  to  be 
lifted  into  self-respect  and  independence  (to  say 
nothing  of  being  raised  to  the  ability  of  self-gov- 
ernment) by  leaders  whose  chief  weapon  is  criticism, 
but  rather  decidedly  by  men  like  that  Arthur  Ben- 
son describes  Henry  Bradshaw  to  be:  “He  simply 
loved  his  friends,  as  the  father  in  the  parable  loved 
his  prodigal  son,  because  he  loved  him  and  for  no 
better  reason.” 

Moreover,  the  native  teachers,  especially,  are  too 
much  obsessed  with  the  idea  of  showing  off  their 
knowledge  in  the  classroom.  They  are  top  heavy 
with  their  new  learning.  I found  an  instance  of  a 
teacher  whose  subject  was  physiology.  The  in- 
spector, wishing  to  learn  something  concerning  the 
subject  matter  of  the  teacher’s  lecture  had  some  of 
the  instructor’s  notes  translated,  finding  to  his 
amazement  that  this  pedagogue  of  students  fourteen 
or  fifteen  years  of  age,  was  discoursing  in  long  peri- 
ods about  embryos,  protoplasms,  and  physiological 
and  scientific  processes,  the  meaning  of  which  words 
was  almost  as  hazy  in  the  instructor’s  mind  as  it 
was  indiscernible  to  his  students.  He  was  making 
an  impression,  however,  upon  his  hearers,  and  one 
of  his  pupils  was  overheard  to  remark  solemnly  that 
his  teacher  was  “a  very  learned  man.” 

The  real  difficulty,  of  course,  resided  in  the  fact 
that,  in  the  first  place,  his  own  teaching  perspective 
was  limited  and  secondly,  that  he  had  not  discovered 
the  primary  truth  that  Egyptian  students  need  activ- 
ity rather  than  receptivity  of  mind. 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  61 


We  are  bound  to  conclude  then  that  the  day  of 
reconciliation  between  teacher  and  student  in  Egypt 
has  not  yet  arrived.  The  attitude  of  aloofness  and 
distrust  of  teacher  and  student,  the  one  to  the  other, 
seems  at  present  reciprocally  universal  and  com- 
plete. The  Arabic  language  hangs  like  a veil  be- 
tween the  scholar  and  the  teacher.  Not  long  ago  I 
asked  a hundred  graduates  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  the  chief  impression  of  value  gained  in  their 
college  course.  Eighty -nine  responded  that  it  came 
from  personal  contact  with  one  or  more  great  teach- 
ers. Yet  I have  not  seen  in  Egypt  the  absorbed 
student  outside  of  lecture  hours  working  with  lively 
curiosity  at  the  side  of  his  professor.  Long  walks 
with  a strong  individual  teacher  or  quiet  evenings 
in  an  instructor’s  home  are  practically  unheard  of 
as  agencies  in  the  development  of  the  Egyptian’s 
student  life.  The  virile  intellectual  energy,  the 
dynamic  youthful  enthusiasm  in  the  subject  of  his 
own  temperamental  choice,  is  still  absent.  There  is 
little  evidence  of  the  impartation  of  that  “vision 
splendid”  or  the  desire  for  unique  contemporary 
leadership  for  the  educated  pioneer.  The  inspira- 
tion when  it  exists  at  all  is  too  often  a text-book  im- 
pulse, and  too  little  the  result  of  the  light  from  a 
great  man’s  eyes. 

The  training  schools  for  teachers  of  which  there 
are  thirteen  now  in  Egypt,  five  of  them  directly 
under  the  Government  and  the  others  receiving  par- 
tial supervision  from  the  Government,  afford  much 
hope.  In  these  schools  the  teachers  of  the  teachers 
are  often  graduates  from  the  higher  European  and 
English  Universities  and  know  well  their  subjects, 
even  though  they  have  something  to  learn  of  the 


62  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


important  art  of  presenting  these  subjects  interest- 
ingly and  with  contagious  enthusiasm.  There  is 
also  a teacher’s  training  school  in  the  city  of  Cairo 
enrolling  four  hundred  Moslem  students  from  the 
El  Azhar  University.  Although  these  students  have 
spent  from  ten  to  twelve  years  in  this  ancient  seat 
of  learning,  they  have  failed  to  learn  there  how  to 
teach,  but  are  here  trying  to  make  up  for  these  de- 
ficiencies. These  four  hundred  students  will  be- 
come teachers  of  Arabic  in  the  modern  institutions 
of  Egypt,  where  many  of  the  fundamental  subjects 
and  text -books  in  use  are  now  being  presented  in  the 
Arabic  language. 

Thus  from  various  angles  we  notice  indications 
that  the  leading  educators  of  this  country  are  be- 
ginning to  appreciate  that  the  educational  task  of 
Egypt  is  the  task  of  the  teacher,  the  task  of  arous- 
ing real,  intellectual  interest  to  take  the  place  of  the 
commonplace  ambition  of  securing  a certificate 
whose  chief  significance  is  fifteen  pounds  a month 
as  a clerk  in  a government  office.  There  is  no  help 
which  can  be  given  to  Egypt  to-day  by  her  friends 
that  will  be  more  truly  far-reaching  than  toward  the 
awakening  of  cosmopolitanism  and  cooperation  in 
the  throbbing,  vital  life  of  the  world. 

Egypt  needs  her  armaments,  no  doubt.  She  needs 
appropriations  to  improve  physical  conditions,  to 
build  dams,  to  dig  drains  and  canals,  to  protect 
property  and  life,  and  to  administer  justice.  But 
the  great  need  of  a New  Egypt  lies  in  the  raising 
up  and  in  the  careful  training,  all  through  the  coun- 
try, of  strong  men  to  teach  Egyptian  youth,  men  of 
animation  and  character,  men  made  bigger  because 
of  the  enormous  discouragements  and  besetting  ob- 


REFORMS  IN  EGYPTIAN  EDUCATION  63 


stacles,  men  of  persistent  idealism — even  faint  re- 
semblances of  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby  or  certain  old 
masters  of  Marlborough  and  Eton  where,  Crom- 
well aptly  said,  the  great  battles  of  England  were 
fought  and  decided.  It  is  only  such  spacious  souls 
who  will  be  able  to  see  in  the  Egyptian  student  the 
man  beyond  the  “native”;  who  will  be  capable,  if 
necessary,  to  sweep  past  mere  official  bulletin  boards 
and  papier-mache  rules  in  their  passion  for  teach- 
ing schoolboys,  even  Egyptian  schoolboys;  men  of 
whom  students  will  think  in  later  years  as  Matthew 
Arnold  thought  of  Jowett  of  Baliol: 

For  rigorous  masters  seized  my  youth, 

And  purged  its  faith  and  trimmed  its  fire, 

Showed  me  the  high,  white  star  of  Truth, 

There  bade  me  gaze  and  there  aspire. 

“But,”  says  the  Government  educator,  “we  must 
be  very  careful  not  to  stir  up  political  discussion. 
Have  we  not  banished  Farid  Bey,  the  nationalist 
leader  for  five  years,  and  is  not  Lord  Kitchener  here 
and  there  and  everywhere  in  the  country,  than  whom 
no  man  on  God’s  footstool  is  better  able  to  rule 
Egypt  with  authority?  Things  are  quiet  now  and 
we  must  keep  them  so,  at  whatever  cost.  We  must 
not  touch  religion  for  that  is  in  the  Treaty.  And 
in  education,  especially,  nothing  offensive  to  politics 
or  conducive  to  national  ideas  can  be  tolerated.  We 
must  put  scientific  text-books  into  Arabic  for  that 
is  necessary  in  order  to  preserve  this  ancient  lan- 
guage and  also  to  please  Egypt.  It  must  be  taken 
for  granted  that  Egyptian  students  belong  to  the 
twelfth  century  and  are  necessarily  defective.  We 
must  not  bother  them  with  psychology,  or  sociology, 


64  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


or  modern  philosophy,  even  though  these  studies  are 
admittedly  essentials  of  every  real  educational  sys- 
tem. And  we  certainly  must  not  become  intimate  with 
our  pupils  outside  the  lecture  room,  since  we  are  a 
superior  race  and  have  an  official  dignity  to  uphold.” 

Very  well,  and  very  sensible  most  of  this,  from 
one  point  of  view.  But  what  of  education  mean- 
while? Were  men  ever  educated,  really  educated, 
without  personal  contact  with  large  minds  and  sym- 
pathetic hearts?  Were  individual  ambitions  ever 
aroused  without  painting  upon  youthful  brains  the 
entire  range  of  present  day  ideas  and  possibilities, 
patriotic,  social,  and  religious?  Has  there  ever 
been  discovered  any  educational  apparatus  for 
creating  vital  literary  interest  more  potent  than  free 
discussion  and  the  fascination  which  a student  se- 
cures in  a love  for  wide  reading?  In  other  words, 
is  the  Education  of  Egypt  to  wait  upon  Politics, 
Arabic,  and  Officialdom?  This  is  now  the  crux  of 
the  Egyptian  Question,  educationally. 

These  are  surely  not  easy  questions  for  educators 
anywhere,  and  especially  not  easy  in  a land  no  far- 
ther advanced  than  this  country  of  the  Nile. 
Neither  is  it  likely  that  any  nation  would  come 
nearer,  if  perhaps  as  near,  to  the  speedy  recognition 
and  solution  of  these  problems  as  England  is  com- 
ing to-day,  united  as  she  is  with  the  most  intelligent 
portion  of  the  Egyptian  population.  To  answer 
such  questions  satisfactorily  will  necessarily  take 
time,  patience,  intelligence,  and  infinite  sympathy. 
But  these  questions  must  he  answered  with  serious- 
ness and  without  equivocation,  and  answered  aright, 
if  modern  education  or  anything  worthy  of  that 
name  is  to  reign  in  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs. 


Y 


Under  a Modern  Bedouin  Tent 

4 4T  It  70ULD  yon  like  to  spend  a few  days  at  the 
V V home  of  a Bedouin  chief  on  the  edge  of  the 
desert!” 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  I answered  the  ques- 
tion in  the  affirmative,  and  at  once  sent  word  stat- 
ing the  time  of  my  arrival  at  Fayoum,  where  I was 
to  be  met  by  the  retainers  of  the  Bedouin,  who  is 
at  the  head  of  35,000  nomads  of  the  desert. 

We  found  the  carriage  awaiting  us  at  the  train — 
in  fact,  a courier  of  the  household  had  met  us  sev- 
eral stations  before  our  ultimate  destination, 
assuring  us  with  various  Oriental  signs,  mixed  with 
Arabic  and  salaams,  that  we  would  be  very  much 
welcomed  at  the  castle  of  his  chief.  The  drive  for 
miles  across  the  well-irrigated  country  was  memora- 
ble ; the  variegated  galabeighs  of  the  fellaheen  dotted 
the  landscape  and  the  hot  air  of  the  desert  blew 
across  vast  rainless  lands.  Here  and  there  at  the 
doors  of  the  mud  huts  we  saw  pictures  that  might 
have  belonged  to  the  time  of  the  Old  Testament — 
women  grinding  corn  at  the  old-fashioned  hand-mill ; 
water  buffalo  yoked  with  camels  drawing  a crooked 
stick  for  a plow  as  in  the  seventh  century — it  was 
all  weird  and  strange  enough  to  our  Western  eyes. 

After  we  had  passed  through  one  or  two  villages 
containing  the  low  black  tents  of  the  Bedouin,  we 

65 


66  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


approached  the  home  of  His  Royal  Highness,  Chief 
el  Basel.  At  the  expense,  however,  of  the  romance 
of  our  title,  the  Bedouin  tent  which  we  approached 
must  be  confessed  to  be  a creditable  brace  of  modern 
buildings  which  might  have  been  found  in  a well- 
ordered  community  in  Southern  France  or  Virginia. 
To  be  sure,  the  buildings  were  low  and  the  architec- 
ture was  somewhat  varied  and  incongruous;  the 
courtyard  into  which  we  drove  was  austere  and  bar- 
ren, almost  as  treeless  and  bleak  as  the  desert  which 
we  could  see  in  the  distance.  The  Chief  had  evi- 
dently taken  his  designs,  both  in  the  exterior  and 
the  interior  furnishings,  from  mingled  impressions 
gained  in  Cairo,  Constantinople  and  the  more  mod- 
ern cities  of  the  Continent.  But  to  say  that  we  who 
had  imagined  ourselves  living  like  nomads,  sleeping 
in  our  blankets  on  the  sand,  beneath  the  brown  tents 
of  this  desert  people,  were  surprised  at  the  modern 
sumptuousness  of  the  habitation  that  confronted  us, 
faintly  expresses  it. 

As  we  drove  into  this  semi-royal  enclosure  of  a 
really  sovereign  Eastern  potentate,  who  rules  with 
no  mean  Government  over  thousands  of  wandering 
desert  men  scattered  through  Egypt  and  Tripoli, 
we  were  greeted  by  twenty  or  more  impressively 
clad  Bedouins  of  various  ages  and  degrees  of  dis- 
tinction, all  members  of  the  tribe  that  boasted  of 
nine  hundred  years  of  ancestry,  coming  originally 
from  Arabia,  the  Bedouin’s  native  home. 

In  front  of  the  committee  of  welcome  stalked  our 
Chief,  decked  in  a luxurious  silk  robe  which  he  car- 
ried with  exceeding  grace  and  dignity.  His  salaam 
was  the  signal  of  not  less  than  a score  of  hands 
touching  respectfully,  first  their  heads,  then  their 


UNDER  A MODERN  BEDOUIN  TENT  67 


breasts,  signifying:  “I  salute  you  with  my  bead 

and  my  heart”;  then  the  Arabic  phrase  “ Sharrafit” 
(“You  are  welcome”)  sounded  about  us.  To  make 
welcome  doubly  sure,  as  soon  as  we  alighted  a dozen 
or  more  turbaned  Bedouins  gave  the  lie  to  their 
warlike  appearance  (for  each  wore  a terrifying 
bunch  of  pistols  in  his  belt,  while  some  carried  guns), 
stepped  forward  and  insisted  upon  kissing  my  hand, 
uttering  ejaculations  of  approval  and  good  will. 

In  the  extravagance  of  Oriental  hospitality  which 
was  one  of  the  impressions  left  upon  us  by  this  visit, 
none  outdid  our  host. 

His  full  name,  including  title,  was  Abdul  Satar  el 
Basel,  Chief  de  la  Triba  Bedouin  el  Rameh  et  Indeh 
de  Kasel  el  Basel,  but  to  save  time  wTe  usually  called 
him  “Chief!”  "With  much  saluting  and  in  fairly 
good  French  (the  Chief  spoke  no  English)  he  invited 
us  to  come  into  the  inner  court,  where  we  found  our- 
selves in  a modern  drawing  room,  the  decoration  of 
which  reminded  one  more  of  Versailles  and  Louis 
XIV  than  the  black  tents  and  mud  huts  that  we  had 
been  passing  along  the  way  to  this  sole  modern 
house  of  the  Bedouin  tribe  of  el  Basel. 

Here  we  found  Bedouin  coffee  which  resembles 
Turkish  coffee,  only  more  so,  and  also  more  often, 
for  it  was  not  unusual  to  find  coffee  at  our  side  eight 
and  ten  times  a day  in  this  home  of  unstinted  hos- 
pitality. In  short,  one  seemed  to  be  shadowed  most 
of  the  time  by  a servant  holding  a tray  in  one  hand 
and  some  sweets  in  another. 

The  early  injunction  of  our  chief  and  host  was  to 
be  “perfectly  natural,”  reiterating  that  his  dwelling 
was  our  home.  He  impressed  upon  me  this  fact 
when  I went  to  my  sleeping  room  and  found  a beau- 


68  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tiful  Arab  costume  of  silk,  with  both  the  inner  and 
outer  robes,  which  the  servant  helped  me  to  don  in 
place  of  my  heavier  clothing,  and  which  my  host  in- 
sisted I should  keep  as  my  permanent  possession.  I 
found  the  costume  most  acceptable  in  this  part  of 
the  world,  where  the  tropical  sun  makes  life  a bur- 
den for  those  adhering  to  the  modes  of  Western 
dress. 

A fine  Arabian  horse  was  also  allotted  to  me  and 
I do  not  remember  a more  pleasurable  sensation 
during  my  entire  sojourn  in  Egypt  than  that  which 
I received  upon  the  back  of  this  fine  animal  in  long, 
hard  rides  over  the  well-packed  sands  of  the  desert 
in  the  early  evenings,  when  that  indescribable  azure 
sky  marks  the  passage  of  the  blazing  Egyptian  day 
into  the  black  Egyptian  night. 

My  companion  in  these  horseback  rides  was  usu- 
ally the  cousin  of  my  host,  who  one  night  slyly 
asked  me  if  my  wife  had  said  anything  about  the 
appearance  of  the  wife  of  the  Chief.  It  must  be 
understood  that  these  people  observe  the  strictest 
seclusion  of  their  women,  and  while  my  wife  was  al- 
lowed entrance  to  the  women’s  quarters,  where  no 
man  save  the  Chief  himself  was  ever  admitted,  this 
relative  of  the  family,  who  had  spent  long  visits  in 
the  home,  had  never  as  much  as  looked  upon  the  face 
of  our  hostess.  Indeed,  I was  told  that  the  brother 
of  el  Basel,  who  had  lived  under  the  same  roof  for 
years,  had  never  seen  the  Bedouin  ruler’s  wife. 

The  strictness  of  this  seclusion  was  brought  hu- 
morously to  our  attention  one  day  during  our  visit 
when  our  hostess  with  a company  of  women  met 
unexpectedly  our  host  as  they  were  coming  out  of  a 
relative’s  house.  The  moment  was  a tragic  one. 


UNDER  A MODERN  BEDOUIN  TENT  69 


The  women,  who  found  it  possible,  made  a hasty 
escape  into  the  house.  The  others  dropped  suddenly 
upon  their  knees  with  their  face  to  a wall,  while  an 
old  servant  covered  them  with  her  shawl  until  the 
dangerous  masculine  had  passed. 

On  another  occasion,  as  I was  crossing  the  court- 
yard, I met  almost  face  to  face  my  hostess  in  the 
company  of  my  wife.  Her  consternation  was  hardly 
greater  than  my  own,  and  I fled  precipitately  into 
the  house.  Her  fear,  I was  told  afterwards,  was 
not  so  much  that  she  should  he  seen  by  a foreigner 
as  that  possibly  her  husband  or  some  of  the  many 
guests  should  have  witnessed  the  sacrilege. 

This  seclusion  of  women  is  far  less  strict  with  the 
Bedouins  who  live  in  tents;  in  fact,  the  wandering 
Bedouins  do  not  seclude  their  women.  I was  also 
surprised  to  learn  that  it  was  the  women  who  are 
the  strictest  holders  of  this  ancient  custom,  which 
means  to  the  woman  of  the  East  the  loyalty  and 
protection  of  the  husband.  The  Moslem  husband 
who  does  not  maintain  the  seclusion  of  his  women 
is  thought  to  have  lost  his  love  for  them.  I found 
here,  as  throughout  Egypt,  that  the  majority  of 
Mohammedans  had  but  one  wife.  The  reason,  how- 
ever, was  economic  rather  than  social  or  religious, 
since  their  faith  allows  every  man  four  wives  with 
unlimited  powers  of  divorce. 

Our  visit  here  was  one  round  of  receptions  and 
calls  upon  Bedouin  relatives — cousins,  uncles  and 
aunts — of  which  there  seemed  to  be  no  end.  The 
whole  tribe  is  directly  or  indirectly  related,  and  the 
custom  of  entertaining  each  other  and  the  giving  of 
gifts  forms  a considerable  part  of  the  daily  life  and 
routine.  The  lands  of  these  people  join  and  em- 


70  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


brace  no  less  than  6,000  acres,  which  are  among  the 
richest  agricultural  lands  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 
These  possessions  occupy  the  famous  Fayoum  sec- 
tion, where  Joseph’s  canals  are  still  shown  to  trav- 
elers. A small  railway  engine  carries  the  farm 
products  from  one  village  to  another,  and  I was  as- 
tonished one  day  to  see  in  a field'  adjoining  one  filled 
with  primitive  implements  and  oxen  treading  out 
the  corn,  as  in  the  days  of  old,  a steam  threshing 
machine  in  full  operation,  also  a steam  plow  and 
a road  maker. 

I was  much  interested  in  what  was  styled  the 
guest  house,  for  this  house  within  the  outer  court- 
yard was  always  filled  with  wandering  or  traveling 
members  of  the  tribe,  who  were  entertained  free  of 
charge  by  their  Chief.  There  was  said  to  be  never 
less  than  twenty  of  these  guests  enjoying  the  hospi- 
tality of  their  ruler.  Similar  to  the  customs  of  the 
time  of  Abraham,  a sheep  is  killed  when  a guest  ar- 
rives. 

I used  to  enjoy  sitting  among  these  men  and 
watching  their  various  occupations.  One  was  a 
teacher — a Sheikh — who  spent  a considerable  time  at 
his  prayers  in  the  corner  of  the  rest  house,  bowing 
back  and  forth,  quite  oblivious  to  the  presence  in  the 
room  of  other  Bedouins  who  were  conversing  stren- 
uously as  they  smoked  their  cigarettes  or  cleaned 
their  firearms. 

Many  of  the  visitors  were  on  their  way  to  Tripoli, 
thirty  days  by  camel,  and  I was  told  by  a Bedouin 
who  could  speak  English  that  much  of  their  conver- 
sation was  concerning  the  war  then  in  progress  be- 
tween Italy  and  Turkey,  in  which  many  members  of 
their  tribe  living  in  Tripoli  were  fighting.  These 


UNDER  A MODERN  BEDOUIN  TENT  71 


Bedouins,  indeed,  have  made  various  attempts  to 
assist  their  relatives  and  friends,  both  by  the  send- 
ing of  money  and  arms  and  also  by  volunteering  as 
soldiers  of  the  Turkish  army. 

An  amusing  incident  is  narrated  which  reveals 
Lord  Kitchener’s  mingled  powers  of  strategy  and 
resourcefulness  when  certain  chiefs  of  Bedouin 
tribes  called  upon  him  expressing  their  desire  to 
gather  a large  force  of  their  warlike  brethren  and 
join  in  guerilla  fighting  against  Italy.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  Egyptian  dreads  more  than  all 
else  conscription  in  the  army,  and  Bedouins  have 
been  exempt  from  service  as  soldiers.  Upon  receiv- 
ing this  announcement  from  the  chiefs  of  the  nomad 
tribes,  the  Soldier  of  Khartoum  faced  solemnly  the 
men  of  the  Desert,  saying  that  he  was  sorry  that  he 
had  heretofore  overlooked  their  martial  propensi- 
ties, that  he  would  immediately  see  that  Egypt  did 
not  lose  the  benefit  of  these  heroic  sons  who  thirsted 
for  glory  upon  the  battlefield,  and  that  he  would 
have  them  all  enrolled  at  once  under  the  same  terms 
as  the  Egyptians  in  the  regular  army.  It  was  stated 
that  at  this  proposal  the  dust  that  rose  from  be- 
neath the  flying  feet  of  those  Bedouin  chiefs  as  they 
escaped  from  the  presence  of  His  Lordship,  was  like 
unto  that  which  sometimes  rises  over  Egypt  from  a 
thick  Khamseen,  the  wind  that  blows  in  blinding 
clouds  the  sands  of  the  Sahara. 

But  these  desert  men  must  not  be  thought  of  as 
mere  wanderers  in  the  sand.  Their  leaders,  at  least, 
are  men  of  business,  sometimes  owning  large  estates 
and  competing  with  the  most  advanced  Egyptians 
in  agricultural  pursuits. 

One  night  as  I was  sitting  with  a circle  of  land- 


72  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


owners,  the  telephone  bell  rang  and  a servant 
brought  to  my  host  the  telephone  receiver,  and  I 
heard  him  carrying  on  a conversation  with  officials 
in  Fayoum,  twenty-five  miles  away.  He  informed 
me  when  he  had  finished  his  conversation  that  he  had 
just  been  talking  with  government  officials  who  were 
arranging  a meeting  between  the  landholders  of  the 
section  and  the  English  Consul  General  the  follow- 
ing day,  a meeting  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
matters  of  irrigation,  farming,  and  also  the  subject 
of  education  for  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  small  vil- 
lage schools  of  rural  Egypt. 

If  you  walk  behind  an  Egyptian  man  on  the  streets 
of  Cairo  or  Alexandria,  if  you  sit  at  a table  of  state 
in  the  midst  of  Pasliadom,  or  listen  to  the  donkey- 
boys  and  the  camel-drivers  or  fellaheen  about  their 
huts  in  the  country,  or  sit  as  I did  with  these  nomads 
with  the  air  of  the  desert  blowing  upon  our  faces, 
it  is  always  the  same,  they  are  talking  money,  money 
and  piastres.  Nor  is  this  passing  strange,  since  the 
majority  of  Egyptians  are  unable  to  read  and  write, 
only  three  in  a thousand  females  and  only  eighty- 
five  from  a thousand  males  being  literate,  according 
to  the  official  report  of  last  year.  And  not  only  are 
these  people  deprived  of  the  interests  and  advan- 
tages consequent  upon  education,  but  it  is  only  re- 
cently that  either  Bedouin  or  Egyptian  has  dared 
to  make  known  the  possession  of  his  wealth  for  fear 
of  being  despoiled  of  it  by  unscrupulous  or  greedy 
Turkish  officials. 

The  chief  of  the  Bedouins  was  also  discovered, 
not  merely  as  a business  man,  but  as  a ruler  and 
judge.  Members  of  his  tribe  bring  to  him  all  kinds 
of  cases  and  his  modern  Bedouin  tent  is  frequently 


UNDER  A MODERN  BEDOUIN  TENT  73 


converted  into  a tribunal,  wherein  the  tribal  head 
has  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  subjects. 

While  we  were  present  at  his  home  he  was  called 
upon  to  act  as  judge  in  a trial  involving  murder, 
and  the  bold  sway  with  which  he  made  his  rulings, 
reminded  one  of  the  autocracy  of  feudal  days.  He 
is  virtually  the  lord  and  master  not  only  of  his  home, 
but  also  of  the  villages  and  of  the  educational  and 
industrial  life  of  his  empire.  This  means  a large 
number  of  varied  activities,  the  settlement  of  a 
wide  variety  of  cases.  The  old  blood  feuds,  for 
example,  are  constantly  reenacted  among  these 
tribes.  It  is  “an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a tooth  for  a 
tooth,”  and,  in  a real  sense,  a life  for  a life  among 
these  desert  peoples.  A member  of  this  tribe  in 
speaking  to  me  one  day  of  a father  who  had  been 
killed,  said : “Of  course,  the  son  was  in  duty  bound 
to  kill  the  murderer  of  his  father.  If  he  had  not 
done  so  he  would  have  been  ostracized  from  his 
tribe.  ’ ’ 

Among  the  strongest  impressions  of  these  days 
were  those  concerning  the  strictness  of  Moham- 
medan religion  as  carried  out  in  the  Bedouin  com- 
munity. 

It  may  be  true  that  in  the  large  cities,  where  the 
tides  of  modern  civilization  sweep  in  from  other 
lands,  the  Moslem  faith,  which  comprises  223,000,- 
000  adherents,  or  one-seventh  of  the  entire  popula- 
tion of  the  earth,  may  be  rationalized  and  changed 
in  part,  but  here  in  the  desert  we  found  Moham- 
medanism almost  exactly  as  it  was  given  by  Ma- 
homet in  the  seventh  century.  I used  to  attend  the 
services  of  prayer  in  the  little  Bedouin  villages  at 
noonday,  when  the  fellaheen  were  brought  by  the 


74  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


call  to  prayer  in  the  little  mosque  from  their  tasks 
in  the  fields.  These  sons  of  the  land  would  crowd 
the  small  room  to  suffocation  and  then  they  filled  the 
street  outside  as  they  knelt  in  their  prayers  to  Al- 
lah, crying  in  unison  with  every  other  good  Moslem 
the  world  around: 

“God  is  Great! 

“I  testify  there  is  no  God  but  God! 

“I  testify  that  Mahomet  is  the  Prophet  of  God! 

“There  is  no  God  but  God!” 

Repeatedly  in  this  country  I noticed  an  humble 
farm  laborer  leaving  his  work,  and  the  camel  driver 
dismounting  from  his  camel,  to  kneel  upon  the  edge 
of  the  field  or  the  sand,  with  his  face  towards  Mecca 
at  one  of  the  five  prescribed  daily  times  for  prayer. 

In  the  modern  “kuttab”  or  Moslem  school  which 
I visited,  guided  by  the  Chief,  I found  a section  set 
apart  for  a praying  place  for  the  children.  The 
complexity  of  these  prayers  makes  it  necessary  that 
the  boys  and  girls  begin  to  learn  them  early.  This 
school,  as  well  as  the  entire  government  of  the  com- 
munity, was  maintained  entirely  at  the  expense  of 
this  Bedouin  Chief,  who  explained  to  me  with  the 
keenest  pleasure  the  modernity  of  these  institutions. 

Lady  Duff  Gordon  has  said  sententiously  that  this 
country  of  Egypt  is  a “palimpsest  on  which  the  Bi- 
ble is  written  over  Herodotus  and  the  Koran  over 
that.”  The  statement  is  not  more  true  of  any  part 
of  the  land  of  the  Nile  than  it  is  of  these  men  who 
carry  the  Koran  with  them  on  their  desert  journeys, 
and  who  are  aroused  more  easily  against  a govern- 
ment which  touches  even  indirectly  their  religious 
life  than  over  any  question  of  politics  or  business. 
These  desert  men  hold  a religion  which  has  with- 


UNDER  A MODERN  BEDOUIN  TENT  75 


stood  for  twelve  centuries  every  effort  of  other  faiths 
or  forces  to  color  or  to  change  their  belief.  Mem- 
bers of  Islam,  wherever  we  find  them,  must  first  be 
dealt  with,  not  as  citizens  but  as  Moslems. 

These  Bedouins,  like  the  modern  Egyptians,  are 
changing  their  exterior  expressions  of  life  through 
the  use  of  modern  implements  and  progressive  in- 
stitutions received  from  the  North  and  the  West. 
They  have  become  modernized  in  commerce,  but  they 
have  not  become  Christianized  in  religion.  As  far 
as  I could  discover,  Western  forces  had  swept  over 
their  religious  creeds  and  convictions,  leaving  them 
practically  unchanged.  We  learned  that  the  Amer- 
ican mission,  with  scores  of  missionaries,  which  has 
done  loyal  work  educationally,  religiously  and  medi- 
cally for  more  than  fifty  years  in  Egypt,  during  that 
entire  time  has  not  been  able  to  report  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  converts  from  Mohammedan- 
ism to  Christianity.  The  Christian  influence,  how- 
ever, and  the  spirit  of  civilization  which  America 
has  given  to  Egypt  through  these  devoted  people, 
have  told  mightily. 

What  the  future  may  hold  for  the  people  of  trop- 
ical Egypt  is  much  easier  to  predict  politically  and 
commercially  than  it  is  religiously.  Some  of  the 
keenest  and  most  broadminded  students  of  Moham- 
medanism, after  years  of  study  and  life  amongst  the 
Moslems,  say  that  Islam  cannot  modernize  herself 
and  still  be  Islam.  The  older  Moslem,  whether  we 
find  him  in  Bedouin  tents  or  in  the  Cairo  homes  of 
Egyptian  Pashas,  appears  to  be  perfectly  satisfied 
with  the  faith  as  his  Arabian  Prophet  outlined  it  so 
many  centuries  ago,  the  worship  of  one  God,  the 
giving  of  alms,  the  fasting,  and  five  daily  prayers, 


76  THE  MODEKNIZING  OF  THE  OEIENT 


and  a pilgrimage  to  Mecca  marking  tlie  culmination 
of  Moslem  piety.  Yet  one  can  liardly  witness  some 
of  the  results  of  this  medieval  faitli,  its  lack  of 
adaptability  to  modern  conditions  in  its  social  laws, 
especially  its  doctrines  in  relation  to  women,  to- 
gether with  its  fanaticism  as  to  the  letter  of  its 
laws,  without  the  realization  that,  as  it  now  stands, 
Islam  is  inadequate  to  meet  many  of  the  new  and 
most  vital  needs  of  a modern  people. 

The  chief  hope  which  I see  at  present  rises  in  the 
fact  that  the  English  nation,  expressed  through 
modern  schools,  modern  industry,  courts  of  justice, 
and  through  such  personalities  as  that  of  Lord 
Kitchener,  is  in  Egypt  to  stay,  and  with  its  occupa- 
tion there  is  coming  to  this  country — Bedouin,  Egyp- 
tian and  Turco-Egyptian  alike — a new  vision  of  all 
that  is  most  effective  in  the  land  of  the  Christian. 

While  the  presence  of  the  English  with  their  ir- 
rigation plans  and  their  excellent  modernized  utili- 
tarianism for  Egypt  may  not  mean  that  the  eleven 
millions  of  Egyptians  and  Bedouins  are  to  embrace 
Western  religion  as  we  know  it,  one  may  have  faith 
to  believe  that  these  people  will  gradually  come  to 
realize  the  essential  values  of  Western  Christianity, 
and  that  they  will  find  a way  to  utilize  such  of  these 
values  as  are  fitting  and  consistent  with  their  Ori- 
ental surroundings  and  imagination  in  the  rapidly 
changing  life  of  the  new  Egypt. 


VI 


“As  Far  as  the  East  is  From  the  West” 

THE  writer  of  the  Hebrew  psalm  doubtless  had 
in  mind  spatial  distance  when  he  said,  “As  far 
as  the  East  is  from  the  West”;  yet  the  figure  holds 
true  for  mental  and  spiritual  separation  between  the 
Orient  and  Occident. 

There  are  few  more  difficult  things  to  which  one 
may  set  his  hand  than  the  task  of  explaining  the 
“What”  and  the  “Why”  of  the  difference  between 
the  East  and  the  West,  hut  no  one  has  crossed  the 
boundary  line  between  Europe  and  Asia  without  per- 
ceiving it. 

There  was  a time  when  it  seemed  more  natural 
than  it  seems  at  present  for  the  Oriental  and  Occi- 
dental life  to  flow  together  in  one  main  stream. 
Alexander  was  once  an  Oriental  monarch,  and  St. 
Paul  seemed  to  find  it  comparatively  easy  to  become 
a Greek.  Did  then  these  clearly  marked  differences 
come  about  through  those  forty  generations  or  more 
of  separation,  when  in  the  Dark  Ages  the  Orient  was 
almost  utterly  erased  from  the  European  mind  and 
the  West  developed  its  own  life  along  independent 
lines?  Or  are  these  national  contrasts  due  to  the 
fact  that  there  are  two  great  and  separate  earth 
spirits,  the  one  at  home  in  the  realm  of  romance, 
mystery  and  religion,  and  the  other  demonstrating 
its  existence  in  the  realm  of  science,  progress,  and 
the  development  of  nature? 

77 


78  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


It  would  naturally  seem  that  when  one  has  passed 
through  the  thin  circumference  of  tradition  and 
habit,  one  would  arrive  at  a common  humanity  quite 
regardless  of  the  tangled  skein  of  races,  colors  and 
creeds.  In  a certain  sense  this  is  appreciated  by 
the  world  traveler.  If  you  sit  in  the  cafes  of  Cairo 
or  Broadway,  you  will  listen,  in  general,  to  much  of 
the  same  kind  of  talk,  conversations  concerning  trade 
and  weather  and  money.  My  wife  mixed  quite  con- 
stantly with  native  women  in  the  harems  and  pur- 
dahs of  Moslem  and  Hindu  lands,  taking  note  of  the 
subjects  of  common  inter’est.  In  Algiers  or  in  Alla- 
habad, in  Cairo  or  in  Canton,  the  topics  were  always 
much  the  same  as  in  the  West — marriage,  dress, 
food,  domestic  gossip.  Nothing  human  is  foreign 
to  either  the  Oriental  or  the  Occidental;  in  a very 
real  sense  we  are  brothers  in  a common  humanity. 

Why  is  it  then,  that  in  this  primitive  unity  of  hu- 
manity, in  this  deepest  sense  of  brotherhood  be- 
tween Asia  and  Europe,  there  is  fixed  evidently  so 
great  a gulf? 

One’s  first  difficulty  in  trying  to  answer  such  a 
broad  question  is  the  difficulty  of  defining  the  terms 
“East”  and  “West.”  It  is  by  no  means  easy  to 
mass  under  the  term  “West”  that  congeries  of  peo- 
ples to  be  found  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  among 
the  British  Islands  and  in  the  American  countries. 
It  is  still  far  more  difficult  to  define  Asia  or  the 
Orient,  which  comprises  one-third  of  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  to  say  that  the  East  is  inevitably  as- 
sociated with  certain  invariable  characteristics, 
remembering  the  wide  separating  barriers  differen- 
tiating the  Arab  from  the  Chinese,  or  the  Hindu 
from  the  subject  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom. 


Ladies  of  the  harem  out  for 


“AS  FAR  AS  EAST  IS  FROM  WEST”  79 


Still,  instinctively  perhaps  rather  than  scientif- 
ically, we  seem  to  know  what  we  mean  when  we  say 
“Oriental,”  quite  as  truly  as  we  think  of  something 
entirely  dissimilar  at  the  mention  of  the  term,  “Oc- 
cidental.” 

There  is  a unity  of  contrasts  even,  a unity  in  di- 
versity between  Occidental  and  Oriental.  There  is 
a line  of  demarcation  of  individual  and  national 
spirit  separating  Europe  and  the  vast  land  of  Asia. 
From  the  Bosphorus  to  the  Pacific,  the  Oriental  is 
at  home,  and  the  Occidental  knows  that  he  is  in  the 
Orient.  Even  from  Algiers  to  Yokohama,  from  the 
Mohammedan  shores  of  Morocco  to  the  Shinto 
shrines  of  the  Mikado’s  empire,  it  is  East,  regardless 
of  the  nations  who  rule.  It  belongs  to  Asia  as  in- 
extricably as  the  stars  belong  to  the  night.  There 
is  a line  threading  it  together,  stronger  than  geog- 
raphy, mightier  than  politics,  more  potent  than  cli- 
mate and  custom.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  Orient,  it 
is  the  permanent  idealism  of  Asia,  the  intangible 
but  very  real  solidarity  of  races  whose  vision  and 
accomplishment  are  more  or  less  identical. 

In  all  this  stretch  of  earth,  the  student  will  find 
common  social  and  religious  ideas  belonging  solely 
to  the  inspiring  principle  of  the  people  living  be- 
neath the  Eastern  sun.  You  may  call  it  indirect- 
ness, contentment,  superstition,  the  sense  of  the  far 
away  and  mystical,  or  stagnation  and  antiquity,  ac- 
cording to  your  point  of  view  as  a Westerner.  But 
if  you  were  born  out  of  its  bounds  you  will  not  fully 
understand  it. 

The  Oriental  recognizes  his  brother  Oriental;  the 
recognition  is  intuitive ; it  is  innately  and  spiritually 
sure.  To  him  the  Occidental  never  becomes  other 


80  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


than  a foreigner.  Yon  take  yonr  Mohammedan 
“boy”  from  Cairo  to  Tokyo  and  he  is  everywhere 
more  or  less  at  home.  He  readily  picks  up  enough 
of  language  and  sign  motions  to  carry  himself  and 
you  through  the  intricacies  of  travel,  and  in  any  one 
of  these  countries  you  feel  that  he  is  far  more  capa- 
ble of  understanding  and  becoming  one  with  the 
natives  than  you  are.  Take  him  to  the  shores  of  the 
northern  Mediterranean,  and  he  is  at  once  in  a terra 
incognita,  helpless  and  remote.  Even  his  intuition 
fails  him  here,  in  this,  to  him,  strange  world  of  men 
and  things. 

I recall  what  a sense  of  “home”  I experienced 
after  spending  many  month’s  beneath  the  tropical 
sun  in  north  Africa  and  Egypt,  when  on  one  June 
evening  I stepped  from  an  Austrian  Lloyd  steamer 
upon  the  Italian  soil. 

We  sat  in  the  Square  of  St.  Mark’s  until  long  past 
midnight  enthralled  with  the  compelling  sense  of 
difference.  It  was  not  the  clothes  of  the  passer-by, 
it  was  not  the  Venetian  architecture  or  the  rounded 
domes  of  St.  Mark’s,  nor  the  faint  strains  of  gon- 
dola song  that  floated  to  us  from  the  Grand  Canal. 
Indeed,  I hardly  realized  that  the  people  were  speak- 
ing a language  other  than  my  own.  I had  the  un- 
conscious yet  conscious  feeling  that  I could  make 
these  people  understand  because  they  knew.  What 
did  they  know? 

Was  it  a common  knowledge  of  social  understand- 
ing? Was  it  a common  heritage  of  ideas,  of  art,  of 
law,  of  progress,  of  classical  background,  or  was  it 
the  unity  of  a common  historical  association?  I do 
not  know.  I could  not  tell  then  and  I cannot  tell 
now,  with  any  satisfaction  to  myself,  why  I,  an 


“AS  FAR  AS  EAST  IS  FROM  WEST”  81 


American,  felt  tlie  stirrings  of  heart  that  made  me 
peculiarly  at  home  in  Venice,  a European  city,  which 
I saw  that  night  for  the  first  time  in  my  life.  I just 
felt — “as  far  as  the  East  is  from  the  West.” 

Some  may  fix  upon  the  great  unifying  idea  of  free- 
dom as  a dividing  factor  between  East  and  West, 
while  others  may  say  “climate,”  and  still  others 
may  attribute  it  to  the  racial  separation  of  color. 
But  one  may  be  certain  that  there  has  existed 
through  generations,  as  there  still  exists,  a great 
divide  between  Eastern  and  Western  civilization, 
in  the  realm  of  religion. 

In  nearly  every  Eastern  land,  Mohammedanism, 
for  example,  counts  its  natural  adherents  by  tens 
of  thousands  or  by  millions.  Buddhism  has,  at  dif- 
ferent times,  compelled  loyalty  from  myriads  of  ad- 
herents in  three  empires.  In  the  first  century  of 
the  Christian  era,  the  religion  of  India  was  made 
the  state  religion  of  China,  and  six  centuries  later 
it  became  the  state  religion  of  Japan.  But  while 
these  Asiatic  nations  have  yielded  to  these  Asiatic 
religions  without  the  aid  of  vast  missionary  enter- 
prises and  forceful  organizations  for  proselyting, 
no  great  Asiatic  nation  or  race  has  ever  truly  ac- 
cepted the  Western  religion,  Christianity,  although 
our  Western  faith  has  been  attended  for  its 
propagation  by  a tremendous  missionary  expendi- 
ture in  money,  devotion,  and  life.  The  religious 
statisticians  tell  us  that  in  the  year  1913,  $30,000,- 
000  were  spent  upon  Christian  missions  in  Asia,  and 
that  $14,000,000  of  this  amount  came  from  America. 
Yet  it  has  been  virtually  impossible  to  even  transfer 
or  translate  intelligibly  the  religious  terms  of  the 
West  into  the  language  of  the  East.  One  is  told  in 


82  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


China  that  the  Christian  missionaries  in  the  Mid- 
dle Kingdom,  after  generations  of  theological  de- 
bate, even  now  find  it  difficult  to  fix  upon  a word  for 
“God”  in  Chinese. 

There  seems  to  be  a root  religious  difference  be- 
tween East  and  West.  A part  of  this  dissimilarity 
lies  fundamentally  in  the  way  of  conceiving  God  and 
the  Universe.  In  the  East,  religion  is  associated, 
first  of  all,  with  the  Universe,  surrounded  and  in- 
terpenetrated with  fixed  and  unchanging  laws,  and 
borne  on  by  resistless  Fate.  The  great  cycles  of 
the  Universe,  running  back  and  forth  from  chaos 
to  world  processes,  include  in  their  ceaseless  cur- 
rents both  gods  and  men,  and  these  latter  are  not 
determining  factors,  but  incidents  merely,  in  a 
mighty  movement  of  invisible,  ultimate,  and  ever- 
lasting forces  and  laws. 

In  the  West,  the  European  or  the  American  is 
accustomed  to  associate  religion  with  some  idea  of 
a Creator  who  is  beyond  and  above  the  Universe 
and  the  men  whom  he  has  made.  Despite  the  com- 
plexity of  our  creeds  or  no  creeds,  there  is  the  un- 
derlying consciousness  of  personality,  or  something 
akin  thereto,  in  the  conception  of  God  and  of  men 
fashioned  in  the  Divine  Image.  The  world,  as  uni- 
verse, was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  universe. 
He  may  conquer  and  control  it ; he  may  discover  the 
secret  laws  of  an  Omnipotent  Architect,  whose  name 
is  not  only  Law,  but  also  Father. 

To  the  Westerner,  progress  is  endless  growth  in 
personality,  an  unceasing  climbing  upward  upon 
earth’s  altar  stairs  that  may  slope  through  dark- 
ness, but  also  through  ceaseless  effort,  up  to  God. 

To  the  Easterner,  Moslem,  Buddhist,  or  Hindu, 


“AS  FAR  AS  EAST  IS  FROM  WEST”  83 


personality  is  to  be  ground  out  in  the  mills  of  the 
gods  until  identity  is  lost  in  an  over-powering 
Koranic  fatalism  or  by  absorption  with  the  Abso- 
lute in  a supine  Nirvana. 

In  the  more  tropical  portion  of  the  East  espe- 
cially, this  withering  of  the  individual  and  the  su- 
premacy of  the  organism  is  apparent.  “The 
individual,”  writes  an  Oriental  scholar,  “comes  to 
a quick  maturity,  passes  into  an  indolent  middle 
life,  and  sinks  without  regret  into  old  age.”  Lord 
Kitchener,  who  knows  the  Oriental  as  do  few  men, 
said  to  me:  “I  find  a kind  of  arrested  development 
among  the  Egyptians.  The  young  student  develops 
rapidly,  he  has  a quick  maturity,  then  he  stops!” 

One  can  hardly  imagine  a more  abject  loss  of 
personality  than  that  one  sees  in  the  sun-worshiper 
of  the  Ganges.  Even  the  fire-worshiping  Parsee 
reminds  one  of  the  mighty  domination  of  nature 
over  the  individual.  The  fanatical  Moslem  soldier 
casts  his  life  with  glad  abandon  into  the  arms  of 
Fate,  which  is  strong  enough  both  to  engulf  him  and 
also  to  save  him  in  Paradise.  The  sweep  of  famine 
and  plague,  the  hot,  fatal  breath  of  the  Indian  sun, 
the  countless  immensity  of  crowded  Chinese  popu- 
lations, the  inexorable  demand  for  death  with  honor, 
of  the  Japanese  devotee  of  the  Son  of  Heaven,  are 
all  expressions  of  the  rule  of  the  Absolute  over  the 
individual  in  Oriental  lands. 

Take  away  from  the  sense  of  a race  the  sure  abil- 
ity to  overcome  nature  by  means  of  science  or  in- 
vention, put  Absorption  and  Annihilation  in  the 
place  of  ambition  and  retrieval,  deprive  the  individ- 
ual of  the  aspiration  and  allurement  of  personality 
growing  ever  larger  and  finer  along  normal  lines  in 


84  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


a life  beyond  life,  and  you  get  the  dead  level  and 
contented  lethargy  of  the  East — a distinct  antinomy 
to  the  ever-hoping  and  enduring  individual  and 
national  ambition  of  the  West — the  faith  that  urges 
in  the  words  of  Tennyson: 

Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 

But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell; 

That  mind  and  soul,  according  well, 

May  make  one  music  as  before, 

But  vaster. 

A strong  element  also  in  these  diversities  of  Ori- 
ent and  Occident,  is  the  element  of  age,  for  the 
Orient  is  a synonym  of  age,  another  term  for  time- 
lessness. I suppose  none  but  those  who  have  grown 
up  in  it  can  fully  realize  the  influence  of  cumulative 
duration  upon  the  minds  of  a people.  The  first  im- 
press of  an  Oriental  civilization  upon  the  Occidental 
mind  is  unlike  anything  else  in  the  world;  it  con- 
vinces one  at  once  of  the  subtle  power  of  antiquity 
as  a force  for  molding  a nation. 

One’s  first  impressions  as  he  leaves  the  Western 
world  at  Port  Said  and  begins  his  silent  voyage 
down  the  Suez  Canal,  that  blue  liquid  thread  that 
binds  West  with  East,  passing  on  either  side  the 
relics  of  historic  associations,  as  old  as  world  his- 
tory, are  like  the  scenes  of  childhood,  indelible. 

Instinctively,  as  by  a kind  of  Eastern  twice-born 
sense,  the  Westerner  recalls  in  memory  the  Bible 
stories  of  these  lands,  poignant  still  with  associa- 
tions of  distant  centuries  when  the  world  was  young. 

Immediately  behind  him  are  the  magic  cities, 
Greek  Alexandria  and  Jerusalem  of  the  Bible;  to 
the  east  and  south  are  the  bleak  hills  of  Arabia,  Mt. 


“AS  FAR  AS  EAST  IS  FROM  WEST”  85 


Ararat  and  the  mysterious  Mecca,  the  land  of  Moses 
and  the  Pentateuch  and  the  home  of  the  Prophet 
and  the  Koran;  to  the  west  is  the  land  of  the 
Pharaohs — and  the  Nile — the  hope  of  Egypt, 
fringed  with  date  palms  and  black  lateen-sails  filling 
with  the  night  breeze  from  off  the  Mokattam  Hills ; 
while  awaiting  him  in  the  south  is  the  languorous 
breath  of  the  Red  Sea  with  all  the  magic,  expecta- 
tion and  charm  of  that  Eastern  world  which  here- 
tofore has  been  for  him  only  “such  stuff  as  dreams 
are  made  of.” 

It  is  with  a unique  tightening  of  the  heart  that 
one  feels  all  these  first  Eastern  things,  which  can 
be  only  felt  and  never  adequately  described,  as  he 
passes  across  the  edge  of  the  Oriental  world. 

Boatloads  of  Arabs,  with  dark  sensual  faces  and 
shining  teeth,  float  off  behind  us  as  the  big  ship 
glides  slowly  and  noiselessly  on  its  one  hundred 
miles’  journey  through  these  narrow  banks  which 
it  cost  eighty  million  dollars  to  build.  A group  of 
Civil  Service  Englishmen,  who  have  donned  their 
white  clothes  of  India,  are  beginning  to  show  new 
signs  of  interest  as  they  stand  together  near  me  and 
talk  of  the  changes  of  Port  Said,  since  “we  took  it 
over.”  Some  American  tourists  are  discussing 
the  length,  the  cost,  and  the  tonnage  of  the  Canal, 
losing  thereby  the  glamour  of  sensation  that  one 
goes  around  the  world  to  experience  and  which 
never  can  be  duplicated  upon  a second  voyage. 

We  look  off  toward  Egypt,  time  enduring  Egypt, 
to  see  camels  and  oxen  yoked  together  in  the  field 
as  they  were  in  the  time  of  Abraham.  A little  fur- 
ther along  our  eyes  follow  a winding  line  of  camels 
in  homeward  route  for  the  villages  in  the  distance, 


86  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


great  bunches  of  maize  and  sugar-corn  bulging  out 
from  their  sides;  the  weary  fellaheen  farmer  is 
walking  behind  them,  the  same  type  of  face  which 
you  have  seen  carved  upon  the  century-old  walls 
of  Abydos.  A band  of  gesticulating,  naked  boys 
run  out  from  mud-huts  and  cry  out  a shrill,  Arabic 
“Sharrafit,”  welcome,  as  we  pass;  without  glasses 
we  can  descry  the  shadoof  men  on  a bend  of  the 
Nile,  their  brown  perspiring  bodies  glistening  in  the 
evening  sun,  as  they  lift  the  last  buckets  of  the 
precious  water  to  the  long  canals  that  irrigate  these 
rainless  lands;  snatches  of  the  weird  cadence  of 
their  evening  song  are  born  to  us  through  the  still 
tropical  air.  Some  fellaheen  women  are  seen, 
carrying  water  jars  balanced  sidewise  on  their 
erect  heads,  their  black  gowns  flowing  gracefully 
about  their  lithe  bodies,  reminding  us  of  a page  out 
of  our  Sunday  school  days,  when  the  early  lessons  of 
religion  came  through  the  old  pictorial  Bibles.  Far 
toward  the  horizon  desert  line  can  be  seen  the  jagged 
line  of  black  tents  beneath  which  we  know  Bedouin 
camel  drivers,  en  route  from  Tripoli  to  the  Fayoum, 
are  resting  after  a long  day  in  the  heat  and  sand. 

Some  one  exclaims  that  he  has  caught  the  out- 
lines of  the  Pyramids  against  the  sunset. 

While  we  strain  our  eyes  to  find  every  new  object 
in  the  passing  panorama,  the  night — the  sudden  un- 
expected Egyptian  night — comes  down  swiftly  like 
a cloud  of  blackness  and  covers  all.  The  soft  wind 
from  the  desert  freshens  and  blows  on  our  faces. 
The  searchlights  show  us  by  flashes  the  barren  des- 
ert sand  on  both  sides  of  the  Canal ; it  also  glances 
across  the  faces  of  a group  of  sleeping  Arabs  piled 
one  on  the  other  in  a lifeboat  on  the  ship’s  side; 


“AS  FAE  AS  EAST  IS  FROM  WEST”  87 


there  are  no  noises  now,  save  the  distant  harking 
of  dogs  or  the  howl  of  a jackal  in  the  far-off  Arabian 
hills;  the  wash  of  our  ship  breaks  softly  in  ripples 
along  the  low  bank;  you  can  fairly  feel  the  loneli- 
ness, and  the  stillness,  as  if  other  ages  and  other 
races  of  men  were  holding  reverent  vigil  here.  It 
is  not  only  different  from  the  West,  it  is  something 
more.  What?  You  cannot  tell.  But  you  do  not 
forget  this  first  night  in  the  land  of  timelessness. 

This  element  of  fascination  attends  the  Occidental 
throughout  the  entire  Orient,  if  said  Occidental  goes 
eastward  gladly  and  sympathetically.  There  is  a 
certain  type  of  person  who  should  never  go  travel- 
ing in  any  Oriental  country.  He  is  the  individual 
who  is  afraid  of  dirt  and  smells,  and  is  always  ex- 
pecting to  catch  hideous  diseases.  Such  a person, 
by  the  way,  usually  captures  all  of  these  and  loses 
in  addition  the  mystic  charm  of  age-long  associa- 
tions. One  mus-t  take  the  Orient  as  he  finds  it,  not 
as  he  would  have  it,  in  order  to  accord  with  his  latter 
day  physiological  and  sociological  ideas. 

To  him  who  thus  sails  east  of  Suez,  Asia  speaks 
a wonderful  language.  She  tells  him  of  things 
primitive  and  ageless,  things  that  lie  near  the  soul 
and  the  sources  of  original  supply.  Her  creeds, 
her  colors,  her  sounds,  her  deference,  and  her  pas- 
sivity, grip  him  and  hold  him  fast.  There  is  some- 
thing elemental  about  the  East,  making  appeal  to 
the  hereditary  strains  of  human  nature.  Even  the 
foreigner  who  rails  at  the  abominable  climate,  and 
hurls  epithets  at  his  stupid  servants  who  lose  or 
steal  his  toilet  articles,  talks  about  second  journeys 
to  the  East.  To  certain  natures,  indeed,  nothing 


88  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Western  can  begin  to  capture  the  mind  and  spirit 
as  that  essential  and  compelling  call  of  the  slow 
moving  Orient. 

Antiquity  plays  a leading  role  in  this  charm.  In- 
dia for  example,  with  its  mysteries  and  its  millions, 
with  its  sorrows  and  its  simplicity,  seems  to  have 
come  out  of  the  night  of  time.  To  her  a thousand 
years  are  but  as  yesterday,  “a  watch  in  the  night.” 
For  centuries  her  religious  consciousness  has  been 
coming  up  to  its  present  type.  The  historian  tells 
us  that  at  least  five  thousand  years  elapsed  before 
the  wars  of  the  Mahabharata.  Behind  her  lies  the 
spell  of  those  milleniums,  passed  on  the  tablelands 
of  central  Asia,  where  are  the  headwaters  of  the 
world’s  civilization.  It  was  here  that  the  Aryan 
took  the  first  steps  of  history,  training  the  beasts 
of  the  field,  domesticating  fire  and  corn,  discovering 
the  use  of  tools,  and  planting  the  earth’s  first  known 
fruits. 

In  the  Rig- Veda  we  get  glimpses  of  the  Indian’s 
poetry  and  song  with  which  he  inspired  his  labors 
in  these  pristine  centuries.  Hundreds  of  years  be- 
fore Oxford  or  Bologna  were  dreamed  about,  forest 
Universities  were  producing  their  learning,  and  the 
accounts  of  their  sessions  have  come  down  to  us  in 
the  Sutras  and  the  Upanishads.  In  some  such 
period  as  this,  the  Vedas  were  written  and  human 
society  existed,  governed  by  such  legislation  as  we 
find  in  the  laws  of  Manu.  Indeed  the  farther  one 
goes  back  in  Indian  history,  the  more  limitless  lifts 
the  horizon;  always  “leagues  beyond  these  leagues 
there  is  more  sea.” 

India  is  thus  like  the  entire  Orient,  inexpressibly 
impressive.  She  must  be  felt  rather  than  talked 


“AS  FAR  AS  EAST  IS  FROM  WEST”  89 


about.  Some  of  the  best  impressions  of  the  East 
are  those  that  can  never  be  taken  down.  They  defy 
capture.  They  are  as  elusive  as  sunbeams,  leaving 
a distinct  and  ineffaceable  memory  that  lives  in  one ’s 
consciousness  half  vivid,  half  obscure,  like  the  sense 
of  a sunset  or  a beautiful  mountain,  or  the  impres- 
sion that  highly  intelligent  and  adorable  individuals 
carry  about  with  them,  the  magic  and  magnetism 
of  which  lingers  when  their  words  are  forgotten. 
It  is  a sense  of  presences. 

This  something  richly  primitive  and  universal, 
this  something  of  age  and  timelessness,  diversity 
and  spirituality,  lying  near  the  soul  and  the  springs 
of  original  supply,  is  the  East.  Her  creeds,  her 
colors,  her  elemental  mysticism,  seem  to  belong  to 
the  primitive  and  unutterable  properties  of  human 
being.  She  somehow  strikes  a note  near  the  heart 
of  life  and  in  consonance  with  the  inwardness  of 
living  things.  Deeper  than  tourists  ’ talk,  finer  than 
the  architecture  even  of  the  Taj,  the  Orient  touches 
life  on  its  myriad  sides 

“Its  pain,  prayer,  pleasure,  act  and  sleep 
As  wallowing  narwhales  love  the  deep.” 

The  Oriental’s  many-mooded  spirit  broods  over 
one  after  its  immediate  presence  is  lost.  His  reli- 
gion, his  poetry,  his  beauty  and  romance  cast  a 
peculiar  spell  as  of 

“A  great  bell  beating  afar  and  near 
The  odd  unknown  enchanted  gong 
That  on  the  road  hails  men  along, 

That  from  the  mountain  calls  afar, 

That  lures  the  vessel  from  a star, 


90  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


And  with  a still  aerial  sound 
Makes  all  the  earth  enchanted  ground.  ’ ’ 

You  can  note  superficial  difference,  you  can  de- 
scribe her  architecture,  her  customs  and  her  com- 
merce; then,  if  you  are  a Westerner,  you  must  stop. 
After  that  the  Orient  for  you  is,  in  the  words  of  the 
Eastern  psalm: 

“As  far  as  the  East  is  from  the  West.” 


VII 


Changing  Social,  Order  in  India 

IN  India,  as  in  no  other  country,  the  social  and 
the  religious  are  inextricably  associated.  India 
is  the  land  of  caste,  and  caste  will  have  as  many 
definitions  as  there  are  kinds  of  people  with  whom 
one  talks  concerning  it. 

The  sympathetic  European  will  frequently  tell 
you  that  caste  is  defined  as  a sense  of  honor,  and 
that  it  is  no  more  a menace  to  India  than  are  the 
clear  cut  differentiating  grades  of  society  found 
in  England,  or  France,  or  Germany.  In  other 
words,  caste  is  a natural  division  of  society  accord- 
ing to  the  standards  of  self-respect;  noblesse  oblige. 

If  you  talk  to  a missionary  in  India,  you  will 
get  quite  another  definition.  Here  for  example  is 
one  which  was  given  me  by  a most  intelligent  mis- 
sion worker: 

As  it  exists  to-day,  caste  is  a blighting  and  baneful  in- 
stitution, the  perpetuating  cause  of  old  feuds,  the  ever 
present  source  of  suspicion  and  envying,  the  one  thing 
which  prevents  the  free  interchange  of  thought  and  life 
from  class  to  class  and  the  intermingling  of  men  as  equals 
(when  talents  and  attainments  clearly  stamp  them  as  such). 
Caste  has  outlived  its  usefulness,  if  it  ever  really  was  useful. 

I have  asked  many  English  officials  regarding  the 
value  or  the  harm  arising  from  the  rigid  castes  of 
India.  As  a rule  you  will  not  receive  deleterious 

91 


92  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


criticism  of  caste  from  an  English  official.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  will  go  out  of  his  way  at  times  to 
place  his  sanction  upon  it.  I have  attended  many 
garden  parties  in  various  parts  of  British  India,  and 
I have  yet  to  find  the  official  who  has  not  seemingly 
been  glad  to  furnish  separate  tables,  food  and  en- 
tertainments for  various  castes  and  nationalities. 
It  may  he  a sweeping  assertion  to  state  that  the 
ruling  class  in  India  are  usually  in  favor  of  any 
influence  which  keeps  strong  sections  of  Indian  so- 
ciety apart.  In  disunion  of  native  India  lies  the 
strength  of  the  rulers.  If,  at  any  time,  Moham- 
medan really  united  in  spirit  and  action  with  Hindu, 
and  if  the  days  should  arrive  when  the  Hindus  could 
break  down  all  of  the  separate  walls  and  partitions 
between  themselves,  and  Sudra  and  Brahmin  join 
hands  in  one  common  purpose  and  propaganda,  the 
hour  for  English  sovereignty  would  strike. 

You  will  find  still  another  point  of  view  regarding 
this  social  and  century  old  influence  in  India  when 
you  talk  with  the  progressive  Indian,  the  man  who, 
working  through  politics,  industrial  or  religious  ad- 
vance, longs  for  a new  India  built  upon  modern 
patterns.  This  type  of  reactionary  from  the  old 
hereditary  orthodox  classes  wants  the  best  things 
of  the  West,  and  desires  them  not  simply  because 
they  are  western  but  because  somehow  they  have 
seemed  to  succeed  in  countries  Oriental,  of  which 
Japan  is  the  first  example. 

This  type  of  Indian  is  not  necessarily  a revolu- 
tionist, hut  he  is  the  educated,  ambitious  descend- 
ant of  those  Indians  who  once  ruled  India  by  the 
sword.  His  weapon  is  not  physical  warfare  but 
modern  improvements,  progressive  machinery  and 


mission  school  in  India 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  INDIA  93 


things  n^w  for  old  India.  Sometimes  he  has  trav- 
eled and  he  returns  to  find  that  his  best  dreams 
for  his  motherland  are  blocked  by  ignorant  preju- 
dices and  foolish  superstitions.  Mr.  Khrishna 
Gokhale,  who,  perhaps,  is  one  of  the  best  present 
day  examples  of  the  sane,  intelligent,  iconoclast  in 
the  midst  of  old  Indian  modes  of  thought 
and  custom,  would  break  caste  feeling  in  order  that 
the  people  themselves,  mingling  more  closely,  might 
unite  for  political  and  educational  advances. 

The  Gaekwar  of  Baroda,  who  is  one  of  the  most 
outspoken  enemies  of  caste  dominance  whom  I met 
in  India,  is  not  only  starting  schools  for  depressed 
classes  through  his  state,  but  has  given  a standing 
order  that  any  teacher  who  refuses  to  teach  these 
“untouchables”  shall  at  once  be  replaced  by  a 
teacher  whose  views  regarding  these  matters  are 
more  modern.  The  Gaekwar  makes  it  a point  to 
invite  Europeans  who,  to  the  orthodox  Hindu,  are 
as  outcasted  as  the  lowest  untouchable,  to  his  table 
at  Baroda  and  a short  time  before  my  visit  there, 
he  had  entertained  in  the  palace  a large  number  of 
students  who  were  members  of  the  lowest  and  most 
depressed  section  of  Hindu  society.  “Caste  is 
slowly  loosening,”  he  said  to  me,  “and  we  are  de- 
termined here  in  the  State  of  Baroda  to  annihilate 
it  as  soon  as  possible.”  His  reasons  might  be  in- 
teresting, but  as  far  as  I could  gather,  one  of  his 
chief  arguments  against  caste  lay  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  a distinct  obstruction  in  his  wide  plans  for 
compulsory  education  throughout  his  native  state. 
No  limitation  of  learning  and  intelligence  to  a Brah- 
min class  could  possibly  go  hand  in  hand  with  any- 
thing like  a system  of  widespread  educational  policy. 


94  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


There  is  still  another  class  among  Indians,  and 
these  continue  to  he  the  largest  numerical  section 
of  Hinduism,  those  who  hold  to  caste  with  a vigor 
only  possible  for  religious  zealots.  Caste,  to  the 
orthodox  and  ultra-orthodox  Hindu,  is  the  mold  in 
which  the  religion  of  his  fathers  has  come  down  to 
him  and  which,  it  would  seem,  he  believes  is  an 
indispensable  essential  for  the  continuance  of  his 
faith  in  its  traditional  purity. 

This  consistent  Hindu  (I  do  not  speak  nov?  of  any 
of  the  sections  of  reformed  Hinduism)  thinks  of 
caste  very  much  as  certain  Western  Christians  think 
of  the  Church  and  their  creed.  To  lose  his  caste 
would  mean  to  him  to  lose  his  religion.  He  would 
be  like  Micah,  whose  gods  of  stone  the  Danites  stole 
and  carried  away,  leaving  the  old  Prophet  to  cry 
in  his  short-sighted  dejection,  “They  have  taken 
away  my  gods.  What  have  I left?” 

To  the  Orthodox  Hindu,  caste  is  the  strongest 
barrier  between  him  and  the  influx  of  Western 
ideals.  As  long  as  he  can  hold  the  body  of  Indians 
in  a water-tight  compartment,  as  long  as  the  Brah- 
min especially  can  draw  from  the  three  lower  castes 
the  homage  and  the  religious  reverence  which  he 
has  maintained  for  so  many  centuries,  he  believes 
and,  justly  so,  that  he  can  safely  say,  “Let  the  new 
forms  industrial,  and  educational  come  in.  They 
will  be  inadequate,  for  they  cannot  touch  the  family 
life  of  India,  which  for  generations  ha.s  been  in- 
sulated against  all  outside  influence  which  would 
tend  to  break  down  its  customs  of  marriage,  social 
communication,  and  domestic  rites.”  Thus  far  this 
greater  section  of  the  Indian  population,  drawing 
its  adherents  from  the  country  and  the  village,  which 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  OLDER  IN  INDIA  95 


communities  are  always  the  last  to  be  touched  by 
new  streams  of  thought,  remains  virtually  impreg- 
nable upon  this  subject.  Even  the  educated  men 
who  return  from  Europe  to  the  smaller  communities 
of  India,  after  having  parted  from  their  allegiance 
to  caste  principles,  are  driven  to  gather  up  again 
the  threads  of  these  social  ancestral  distinctions,  in 
order  to  be  allowed  to  remain  in  their  family  or  to 
escape  the  term  which  to  Indians  is  anathema — 
‘ ‘ Outcasted ! ’ ’ 

An  instance  of  the  absolute  impossibility  at  the 
present  time  of  breaking  through  the  caste  preju- 
dices of  village  life  in  India  was  brought  to  my  at- 
tention upon  visiting  the  school  and  mission 
inaugurated  and  conducted  by  Pundita  Ramabai  at 
Kedgeon,  not  far  from  Poona.  This  Indian  woman, 
whose  learning  and  work  has  brought  to  her  a 
somewhat  unique  distinction,  the  title  of  Pundit, 
and  who  is  doing  in  some  respects  a remarkable 
work  among  the  1,200  or  more  girls  she  has  gath- 
ered from  various  untoward  environments  and  cir- 
cumstances, is  now  finding  one  of  her  great  diffi- 
culties in  securing  a place  in  the  home  life  of  the 
Indian  villages  and  towns  for  the  girls  whom  she 
has  been  able  to  Christianize.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  young  women  are  much  superior  in  the 
way  of  education  and  training,  and  also  in  their  do- 
mestic capabilities,  to  the  average  girls  of  the  vil- 
lages, it  is  almost  an  unheard  of  event  for  any 
villager  to  be  willing  to  marry  one  of  these  mission 
girls.  As  one  man  expressed  it,  “Any  Indian  who 
married  a girl  from  this  school,  a girl  who,  accord- 
ing to  Hindu  standing  had  been  outcasted,  would 
find  the  entire  village  rising  up  against  him  and 


96  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


would  actually  be  prevented  from  living  in  his 
home.” 

It  was  my  privilege  to  go  with  a band  of  workers 
from  this  school  to  a village  near  by  where  they 
were  accustomed  to  preach  in  the  endeavor  to  win 
converts  to  Christianity.  The  utter  lack  of  sym- 
pathy and  even  common  courtesy  which  was  offered 
to  these  workers  astonished  me,  since  in  most  of 
my  visits  to  the  Indian  villages,  I had  found  the 
simple  village  folk  filled  with  curiosity  and  interest, 
good  humor  and  hospitality  at  the  presence  of 
the  foreigners.  I found  that  the  chief  reason 
which  led  these  people  to  greet  with  dark  looks 
these  mission  workers  lay  in  the  fear,  which  was 
heavy  upon  them,  of  losing  favor  or  being  held 
as  objects  of  suspicion  among  the  villagers,  which 
is  simply  another  way  of  saying  they  were  in 
terror  that  they  might  lose  caste.  In  spite 
of  all  the  tremendous  advances  which  railroads,  the 
telegraph,  the  Indian  posts,  and  education  are  mak- 
ing in  the  way  of  breaking  down  this  terrifically 
high  and  strong  fence  against  foreign  intrusion,  as 
far  as  one  can  see,  the  majority  of  rural  Indians 
are  held  as  firmly  in  the  vice  of  social  customs  to- 
day as  they  were  a thousand  years  ago. 

Even  in  the  cities,  when  the  spirit  of  caste  has 
gone,  the  form  remains,  and  it  is  often  as  efficacious 
as  the  thing  itself. 

It  was  my  custom  in  my  studies  and  travels  in  In- 
dia to  meet  and  talk  with  as  many  members  of  the 
local  community  as  possible  during  my  sojourn  in 
a given  place. 

A somewhat  amusing  instance  of  the  way  in 
which  caste  hangs  like  a Damoclean  sword  above 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  INDIA  97 


the  heads  even  of  progressive  and  well  educated 
Indians,  was  revealed  in  a certain  place  where  for 
several  weeks  I had  made  it  my  custom  to  receive 
callers  in  my  hotel  apartment. 

One  afternoon  it  chanced  that  a Brahmin  of  one 
of  the  highest  castes  was  calling  upon  me  as  tea 
was  being  brought  to  my  room.  At  our  invitation 
my  guest,  somewhat  hesitatingly  to  be  sure,  allowed 
my  wife  to  serve  him  with  tea,  and  cake  which  he 
proceeded  to  eat  with  us.  Before  we  had  finished, 
however,  a rap  at  the  door  announced  my  next  in- 
terview. It  chanced  to  be  another  Brahmin  of  the 
same  caste  as  the  gentleman  who  was  eating  with 
us.  When  the  caller  was  announced  we  noticed  the 
embarrassment  and  confusion  depicted  upon  the 
face  of  guest  number  one,  and  my  wife,  with  a subtle 
exhibition  of  feminine  tact  and  to  the  extreme  relief 
of  our  friend,  deftly  swept  his  cup  and  plate  of  half 
eaten  cakes  from  before  him,  carefully  concealing 
them  from  view. 

Brahmin  number  two  then  entered  the  room,  and 
with  natural  hospitality  we  invited  him  also  to  par- 
take of  tea  and  cakes  with  us  which  he  peremptorily 
refused  to  do,  saying  with  a pious  look  at  his  fellow 
Brahmin,  “We  Brahmins,  as  you  know,  are  strictly 
orthodox,  we  never  eat  with  those  outside  our 
caste.” 

When  my  wife  murmured  something  about  her  re- 
gret at  not  being  able  to  properly  show  our  hospi- 
tality to  either  of  the  two  gentlemen  present,  the 
grateful  look  that  passed  over  the  face  of  Brahmin 
number  one,  amply  recompensed  her  for  the  social 
deception.  It  was  not  that  either  of  these  gentle- 
men would  refuse,  if  alone,  to  drink  tea  and  to  eat 


98  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


cake  with  ns,  but  they  were  afraid  of  each  other 
in  the  tragic  fear  of  caste.  They  were  not  unlike 
certain  extreme  and  radical  temperance  advocates 
whom  I used  to  meet  in  obscure  parts  of  America, 
who  would  always  refuse  a drink  when  their  friend, 
John  Jones,  was  present — but  at  other  times — 

Yet  I would  not  have  my  readers  mistake  the 
above  remarks  as  depicting  the  entire  Indian  tend- 
ency in  relation  to  caste,  for  no  one  can  visit  the 
country  as  a whole  to-day  without  seeing  more  or 
less  constantly  the  signs  of  deterioration  in  this  cen- 
tury old  custom. 

I was  meeting  on  one  occasion  quite  a large  com- 
pany of  students  in  a professor’s  home  where  re- 
freshments were  served  upon  two  separate  tables, 
one  for  the  Hindu  students  and  the  other  for  the 
Mohammedans.  It  seems  that  the  Hindu  students 
being  somewhat  in  the  majority  had  consumed  their 
cakes  and  one  of  the  young  men  with  considerable 
frankness  hinted  to  the  host  that  the  cakes  had  dis- 
appeared. The  host  sent  his  servants  to  bring  more 
refreshments,  but  the  servant  soon  returned  with 
the  disappointing  news  “cakes  finished,”  at  which 
the  aforesaid  Hindu  boy,  taking  the  Professor  aside, 
pointed  to  a large  plate  of  tempting  sweets  upon 
the  Mohammedans’  table. 

“But,”  said  the  Professor,  “those  have  been  par- 
taken of  by  the  Mohammedans,”  at  which  the  stu- 
dent shrugged  his  shoulders  and  said,  “It  doesn’t 
matter,  they  look  like  good  cakes  just  the  same.” 

“I  have  been  teaching  for  fifteen  years  in  In- 
dia,” said  the  Professor,  “and  I am  sure  such  a 
thing  could  not  have  happened  even  five  years  ago.” 

A strong  influence  in  bringing  about  broader 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  INDIA  99 


opinions  relative  to  this  matter  are  the  reform  so- 
cieties, the  Brahmo  and  Arya  Samaj,  which  number 
among  their  adherents  a large  constituency  of  the 
influential,  educated  men  who  hold  positions  of  lead- 
ership and  responsibility  in  the  new  India.  The 
members  of  both  of  these  reform  movements  have 
eschewed  caste,  and  while  the  Bralimos  are  out- 
casted  in  many  Hindu  circles,  the  members  of  the 
Arya  Samaj  who  hold  very  strictly  to  the  ancient 
Vedas  as  their  text-book  of  religion,  are  usually 
spoken  of  even  by  orthodox  Hindus,  with  much  re- 
spect. In  fact  one  could  hardly  say  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Arya  Samaj  were  really  considered 
outside  the  Hindu  fold,  despite  the  fact  that  they  do 
not  keep  caste  laws. 

In  the  cities  of  Madras,  Calcutta,  and  Bombay,  I 
found  several  instances  of  Brahmins  and  Hindus 
of  good  standing  eating  with  members  of  other 
castes  and  even  in  public  places.  Were  it  not  for 
the  conservatism  of  Indian  women,  who  are  by  far 
the  most  sturdy  preservers  of  Hindu  usages,  this 
ancient  system  would  be  much  more  speedily  anni- 
hilated. As  it  is,  one  can  only  say  that  caste  waits 
upon  time  in  this  land  of  timelessness.  It  is  my 
opinion  that  the  slowness  with  which  caste  is  being 
swept  away  in  India  is  not  an  unmixed  evil.  In 
spite  of  its  disadvantages  to  a united  India,  in  spite 
of  the  unjust  laws  which  it  binds  upon  the  neck  of 
Indian  brotherhood,  caste  is  a mighty  force  in  the 
way  of  moral  restraint. 

In  the  matter  of  intermarriage  alone,  as  well  as 
in  the  general  moral  relations  between  men  and 
women  in  a country  where  standards  of  chastity  are 
quite  different  than  they  are  in  the  West,  the  doing 


100  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


away  of  caste  before  other  moral  restraints,  equally 
as  binding,  have  come  in  to  take  its  place,  would 
undoubtedly  bring  a chaotic  condition  of  social  life 
which  is  not  pleasant  to  contemplate.  In  the  pres- 
ent condition,  the  members  of  the  lower  strata  of 
Indian  community  who  usually  have,  to  be  sure,  lit- 
tle to  lose  in  accepting  Christianity  or  any  other 
alien  faith,  find  themselves  after  such  acceptance 
more  utterly  isolated  and  expatriated  than  one  can 
easily  conceive. 

To  the  Hindu,  almost  as  much  as  to  the  Moham- 
medan, to  be  ostracized  from  the  religious  house- 
hold is  to  be  denationalized.  In  India  as  in  Egypt 
and  the  near  East,  it  is  a Church  State  rather  than 
a State  Church.  The  binding  thread  of  the  people 
is  religious  rather  than  national.  To  lose  standing 
in  a matter  so  important  as  that  of  social  religious 
status,  means  that  the  person  so  deprived  of  the 
environing  protection  of  public  opinion  might  as 
well  be  deported,  as  far  as  his  relationships  with 
his  own  people  are  concerned.  It  is  only  in  certain 
places  in  Southern  India  where  Christianity  is  now 
presenting  a more  confident  and  stronger  force  in 
the  second  generation  of  Christians,  that  this  class 
stigma  has  been  at  all  obliterated.  I find  it  not  un- 
common to  hear  missionaries  in  India  affirm  that 
they  hesitate  in  many  instances  to  advise  young  In- 
dians to  break  utterly  with  their  homes  and  their 
social  family  obligations  as  they  would  be  compelled 
to  do  if  they  publicly  embraced  Christianity.  It  is 
one  thing  for  Christians  to  theorize  concerning  the 
necessity  of  Indians  making  a “clean  breast  of  their 
faith”  regardless  of  circumstances,  and  quite  an- 
other thing  to  deal  with  the  complicated  and  the 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  INDIA  101 


often  marvelously  involved  individual  cases  with 
which  the  Mission  workers  are  confronted  in  this 
land. 

What  is  the  nature  of  a force  which  has  been  thus 
capable  of  enchaining  for  so  many  generations  two 
hundred  millions  of  people? 

The  divisions  of  this  force  are  fourfold.  We  have 
first  the  Brahmin  or  the  learned  class.  In  the  di- 
vision of  labor,  these  men  have  been  appointed  as 
the  thought  hearers,  the  educators,  men  of  ideas 
and  meditation,  the  thinking  class,  the  inheritors 
of  the  sacred  writings,  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of 
the  Hindu  religion.  This  top  layer  of  society,  which 
in  America  would  be  giving  its  first  attention  to 
material  aggrandizement,  in  England  to  becoming 
environed  by  royal  or  political  influence,  has  in  In- 
dia given  its  first  time  and  attention  from  periods 
immemorial,  to  the  cultivation  of  the  mind.  As  a 
consequence,  it  is  this  class  which  is  by  far  the 
most  powerful  section  of  Indian  civilization  at  the 
present  time.  These  are  the  men  who  most  rapidly 
adapt  themselves  to  Western  learning,  and  to  West- 
ern office  hearing.  I find  indeed  at  present,  these 
men,  contrary  to  the  ancient  divisions,  are  becoming 
expert  in  the  professions  formerly  allotted  to  the 
second  and  third  classes  in  the  caste  division.  It  is 
the  Brahmin,  however,  who  is  naturally  the  most 
desirous  of  retaining  caste  divisions,  for  in  so  doing 
he  is  fighting  for  his  own  prestige  under  the  guise 
of  age  long  religious  sanctions. 

The  second  caste  division  is  that  of  the  Ksha- 
triyas  the  warrior  class.  These  are  the  military 
and  fighting  guardians  of  things  Indian.  No  dis- 
grace attaches  to  their  ignorance,  but  had  they  failed 


102  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


in  the  protective  art,  they  might  look  in  vain  for  the 
favor  of  the  Hindu  Gods.  In  this  class  were  en- 
rolled the  turbulent  and  pugnacious  Rajputs,  the 
warlike  Mahrattas  and  the  ancient  tribes  who  kept 
the  Indian  frontiers.  The  British  Raj  showed  far- 
sighted craftiness  in  the  enlistment  of  so  many  mem- 
bers of  this  class  in  the  native  army,  for  in  India, 
as  in  few  other  nations,  there  have  existed  through- 
out the  centuries  large  numbers  of  people  whose 
only  calling  is  that  of  being  fighters,  and  who  care 
solely  for  the  martial  career.  One  can  easily  notice 
the  difference  in  mien  and  bearing  between  the  keen 
intellectual  but  non-fighting  and  often  effeminate 
Bengali,  and  the  swaggering,  independent  air  of  the 
born-fighting  Rajput.  The  Bengali  talks  when  dis- 
affected, but  the  Mahratta  and  Rajput  fight. 

The  third  caste,  that  of  the  Vaisyas,  are  the  mer- 
chants of  India,  although  at  present  this  class  has 
been  absorbed  in  certain  sections  of  India  by  the 
Brahmins  and  Sudras  who  are  entering  the  com- 
mercial field. 

The  influence  of  deputizing  the  world’s  work  in 
business  to  a particular  section  of  society  has  had 
a permanent  influence  upon  the  entire  country. 
These  were  supposed  to  be  the  men  who  attended  to 
the  business  of  India.  They  represented  the  great 
middle  class  of  shop  keepers.  To  be  born  in  this 
class  meant  that  it  forever  settled  the  person’s 
standing  and  his  kind  of  work.  The  Brahmin,  tra- 
ditionally, is  obsessed  with  the  conviction  that  for 
him  to  sully  his  hand  by  labor,  whether  it  be  that  of 
the  Sudras  or  work  of  the  merchant  class,  is  to 
lower  his  rank  and,  in  a sense,  to  give  up  his  birth- 
right. The  economic  pressure,  however,  which  is 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  INDIA  103 


now  perhaps  the  strongest  force  dominating  the  new 
India,  promises  to  make  this  merchant  class  the  pre- 
dominating one  in  the  next  quarter  of  a century, 
since  thought,  religion,  and  military  life  must  per- 
force change  their  garments  for  those  of  the  worker 
before  the  new  machine-made  civilization  which  is 
now  revolutionizing  Indian  standards. 

The  fourth  class  of  Indian  society  are  the  Sudras 
— the  servant  class,  the  mechanics,  the  hewers  of 
wood  and  the  drawers  of  water,  the  farmers,  the 
artisans,  the  carpenters,  the  weavers,  the  gold- 
smiths. It  is  only  in  the  last  fifty  years  that  hope 
has  dawned  for  members  of  this  class  through  the 
introduction  of  education.  I have  found  these  men 
among  the  teachers  of  the  schools,  among  the  offi- 
cials in  Government  service,  while  certain  members 
of  the  second  generation  are  now  numbered  among 
those  who  are  sent  to  Europe  and  America  to  be- 
come expert  mechanicians  and  agriculturists  and  on 
their  return  are  clothed  with  honor  and  rewards 
quite  equal  to  any  of  the  higher  social  classes  of 
India. 

Beneath  these  four  grand  divisions  of  Hindu 
caste  there  is  the  great  unwashed,  the  submerged 
tenth,  the  unclassifiable “Untouchables,”  the  Pariahs 
and  outcasts  of  Indian  society.  To  be  a member 
of  either  of  the  above  mentioned  four  classes  is  to 
be  honorable,  but  to  be  horn  into  this  subterranean 
ground  work  of  Indian  life  is  to  join  “les  miser- 
ables”  of  the  sweating,  toiling  millions  who  are 
forever  sullied  with  the  world’s  unseemly  work. 

It  is  out  of  this  class  that  converts  to  Moham- 
medanism and  Christianity  have  chiefly  sprung. 
That  they  have  gained  by  their  change  of  religion 


104  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


is  beyond  question.  In  fact,  if  Christianity  had 
done  nothing  in  India  but  to  hold  some  sort  of  hope 
before  the  eyes  of  these  soiled  slaves  of  degrading 
toil,  it  might  well  have  had  a raison  d’etre. 

The  Government  is  also  taking  a strong  hand  in 
the  lifting  of  these  classes  into  new  possibilities. 
Schools  for  the  depressed  classes  are  being  founded 
in  all  parts  of  India  at  present.  The  bulk  of  mis- 
sionary enterprise  and  thoroughly  conscientious  la- 
bor are  aimed  at  this  class  of  society  with  telling 
effect.  The  pitiableness  of  these  outcast  people  is 
fairly  unspeakable.  Their  very  shadows  contami- 
nate. One  sees  even  to-day  the  Brahmin  drawing 
his  robes  about  him  and  moving  in  a wide  circle  at 
the  approach  of  an  “untouchable.”  In  Southern 
India,  I have  found  places  where  the  atmosphere 
for  sixty-five  feet  around  these  outcasts  contami- 
nated the  air  for  the  higher  classes.  In  some  sec- 
tions of  India,  these  forsaken  ones  are  not  permitted 
to  walk  through  certain  streets  and  in  villages  are 
confined  to  quarters  of  their  own  victims  of  birth. 
The  following  urgent  Indian  appeal  for  relief  of 
depressed  classes  is  an  earnest  of  what  the  next 
few  years  will  bring  forth  in  this  changing  Indian 
society : 

“A  Government  within  easy  reach  of  the  latest  thought, 
with  unlimited  moral  and  material  resources,  such  as  there 
is  in  India,  should  not  remain  content  with  simply  asserting 
the  equality  of  men  under  the  common  law  and  maintaining 
order,  hut  must  sympathetically  see  from  time  to  time  that 
the  different  sections  of  its  subjects  are  provided  with 
ample  means  of  progress.  Many  of  the  Indian  States, 
owing  to  less  elevating  surroundings  or  out  of  nervousness, 
and  fear  to  strike  out  a new  path  find  it  less  troublesome 


CHANGING  SOCIAL  ORDER  IN  INDIA  105 


to  follow  the  policy  of  laissez-faire  and  to  walk  in  the  foot- 
steps of  the  highest  Government  in  India,  whose  declared 
policy  is  to  let  the  social  and  religious  matters  of  the  people 
alone,  except  where  questions  of  grave  importance  are  in- 
volved. When  one-sixth  of  the  people  are  in  a chronically 
depressed  and  ignorant  condition,  no  Government  can  af- 
ford to  ignore  the  urgent  necessity  of  doing  what  it  can 
for  their  elevation.” 


vin 


Glimpses  of  Old  Hyderabad 

TWICE  at  least  impressions  are  indelible — in 
childhood  and  in  India. 

To  the  Westerner,  India  comes  with  a rush  of 
commingled  and  extraordinary  impression.  He  is 
almost  blinded  by  the  riot  of  color,  the  brown  and 
white  and  resplendent  reds  and  yellows.  A street 
scene  impresses  one  as  an  artificial  masquerade;  it 
is  a phantasmagoria  Asiatic,  of  dress  and  gesture, 
of  turbulent  cries  and  a mixture  of  all  the  Arabian 
Nights’  pictures  and  sensations  one  has  ever 
dreamed. 

India’s  moods  and  motions  are  all  Oriental,  mag- 
ically paradoxical  to  Western  eyes.  The  traveler  is 
plunged  without  warning  into  a new  world  and 
strange.  He  finds  servility  in  the  place  of  independ- 
ence; instead  of  commercialism  he  is  greeted  with 
an  intricate  system  of  barter;  incessant  volubleness 
and  indirectness  fill  the  foreground  where  he  has 
been  wont  to  find  Western  order  and  directness  of 
dealing.  The  very  sun  in  the  heavens,  which  he  has 
always  been  taught  to  love,  becomes  his  treacherous 
foe,  dealing  him  fatal  sunstroke  if  he  is  unwise 
enough  to  be  caught  in  the  Indian  daylight  without 
sufficient  protection  for  his  head.  The  heavens  at 
night,  set  with  their  dry  blazing  stars,  seem  to  de- 
clare a new  handiwork  of  Deity,  and  when  evening 

comes  with  its  languorous  warmth  subtly  wrapping 

106 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  107 


him  about  witli  its  garments  of  mystery,  the  traveler 
feels  himself  a sojourner  in  a land  he  knows  not  of. 
Like  a dreamer  at  night  he  struggles  for  a conscious- 
ness that  can  break  the  spell  of  this  unaccustomed 
thraldom  of  his  senses. 

Of  all  places  in  India  where  this  sense  of  the  East 
is  thrown  about  one  as  a spell,  Hyderabad,  old 
Hyderabad,  the  largest  native  State  of  India,  ruled 
by  a Mohammedan  Potentate  called  the  Nizam, 
stands  supreme.  I shall  never  forget  my  impres- 
sions of  the  weeks  which  I passed  among  the  offi- 
cials, the  schools,  and  in  the  homes  of  this  old  city, 
which  indeed  hardly  seems  like  a city  so  much  as  a 
kind  of  magical  amusement  exposition  dropped  to 
the  earth  from  an  Oriental  dream.  Truly,  you  feel 
that  the  whole  atmosphere  is  too  old  and  too  strange 
to  last,  that  the  gaily  painted  shops  are  simply  stage 
scenery,  soon  to  be  pulled  down  and  placed  in  the 
property  room,  and  the  goldsmith  who  makes  the 
bracelets,  nose  rings,  and  necklaces  for  the  pretty 
dark  eyed  women  within  the  Zenana,  is  only  waiting 
for  his  cue  to  leave  the  stage.  You  cannot  but  think 
that  the  men  on  the  corners  of  the  tortuous  streets 
with  their  arms  tilled  with  great  wreaths  of  white 
flowers  or  with  marigolds  and  garlands,  which  the 
Indians  hang  about  the  necks  of  their  friends  or 
drape  over  the  doorways  at  feasts  and  weddings,  are 
simply  there  for  show  to  add  color  to  the  picture. 

Then  the  women,  the  working  women  and,  once  in 
a while,  the  Hyderabad  lady  whom  you  see  in 
glimpses  with  saris  of  purple  or  crimson,  with 
gleaming  bracelets  and  clinking  anklets,  with  kohl 
blackened  eyes  that  stare  at  you  wonderingly  from 
above  their  veils,  and  also  the  women  draped  in  long 


108  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


white  cloaks  like  winding  sheets  which  cover  them 
comjhetely  from  view  of  the  passer-by — these  are 
just  a part  of  the  chorus ; while  the  sheen  of  knives 
and  guns  and  huge  silver  chains  hanging  over  the 
shoulders  of  the  men  from  the  north,  the  elephant 
swaying  slowly  down  the  street  looking  with  keen, 
twinkling  eyes  at  the  people  who  make  way  for  him, 
and  the  background  and  setting  composed  of  the 
small  native  shops  swarming  with  tens  of  thousands 
of  the  dark  subjects  of  the  Nizam,  add  further  to  the 
impression  of  the  pantomime  and  mirage.  Over  all 
lies  the  dazzling  brilliancy  of  the  Indian  sunshine 
and  about  all  the  spirit  of  the  slow-moving  East. 

There  seems,  indeed,  to  be  little  or  no  connection 
between  this  picture  and  the  scenes  to  which  West- 
ern eyes  are  accustomed.  It  is  just  another  name 
for  age  and  mystery, 

“Another  brain  dreaming  another  dream.” 

It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  that  all  this  is  a part 
of  the  new  India,  India  with  her  315,000,000,  as  large 
as  Europe  without  Russia,  and  increasing  at  the 
rate  of  250,000  per  month ; with  its  forty-three  races 
and  twenty-one  languages  in  every  day  use,  with  its 
annual  commerce  with  Great  Britain  alone  amount- 
ing to  four  hundred  million  dollars ; India  with  her 
40,000  miles  of  railroad,  carrying  350,000,000  pas- 
sengers yearly,  and  65,000,000  tons  of  goods ; India 
with  her  big  port  cities  equipped  with  modern  con- 
veniences of  telegraph,  telephone,  electricity,  sani- 
tation, irrigation  and  with  a slow  but  certain 
acceptance  of  the  chief  educational  and  industrial 
appliances  of  the  Western  world.  It  is  even  more 
difficult  to  appreciate  in  this  State,  with  all  its  signs 


At  an  Italian  mission  school  in  Hyderabad 


Four  Indian  princes  at  Nizam  College,  Hyderabad 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  109 


of  Oriental  despotism,  that  one  is  in  a country  ruled 
over,  not  by  Great  Moguls  but  by  Great  Britain  who 
accomplishes  the  task  with  only  75,000  troops  and 
1,200  civil  servants  and  school  teachers.  To  think 
further,  however,  is  to  appreciate  the  farsightedness 
of  England  who  has  realized  that  the  only  way  she 
could  govern  India  is  hv  retaining  these  ancient 
native  chiefs  over  their  respective  states  as  verita- 
ble kings,  under  surveillance,  and  affording  to  In- 
dians an  increasingly  large  share  in  the  affairs  of 
government.  England’s  chief  danger,  in  fact,  of 
losing  India  lies  in  her  departure  from  the  present 
policy  of  equity  and  just  dealing  to  all,  regardless  of 
creed  or  color.  Any  indication  that  the  British  Raj 
distinguishes  between  men  because  of  blood  or  color 
or  race  would  immediately  tend  to  unite  Hindu  and 
Mussulman  against  the  rule  whose  ensign  floats  over 
half  of  the  people  of  Asia. 

Hyderabad,  which  represents  one  of  the  strongest 
centers  of  Mohammedan  influence  with  which  Great 
Britain  has  to  deal,  finds  its  central  interest  in  the 
personality  of  its  ruler,  the  Nizam,  who  has  for  gen- 
erations enjoyed  a reputation  for  magnificence  and 
of  mystery — the  royal  personage  who  has  been  said 
to  outrival  Solomon  with  his  palaces,  his  jewels,  and 
his  wives. 

One  of  his  subjects  described  to  me  the  Oriental 
lavishness  with  which  he  entertained  during  the 
Great  Durbar  at  Delhi,  when  King  George  was  pro- 
claimed Emperor  of  India;  the  gorgeousness  and 
prodigality  of  expenditure  could  only  occur  in  an 
Eastern  land.  For  sixteen  months  he  had  an  army 
of  workmen  clearing  the  ground,  making  lawns  and 
flower  gardens,  and  erecting  the  tents  that  were  to 


110  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


accommodate  his  guests  and  the  four  thousand  peo- 
ple whom  he  took  with  him  from  Hyderabad.  His 
scores  of  women  wTere  lodged  in  an  old  palace  at  a 
distance  from  the  guests’  tents  and  were  of  course 
unseen,  viewing  the  spectacle  from  afar. 

This  is  hut  an  indication  of  the  profuse  and  sump- 
tuous life  which  the  Nizam  lives  in  old  Hyderabad. 
His  life,  however,  is  hedged  about  with  the  utmost 
secrecy.  There  are  all  kinds  of  conjectures  regard- 
ing the  number  of  wives  and  women  within  the  ex- 
tensive palace  walls.  No  foreigner,  indeed,  not 
even  the  officers  of  the  Hyderabad  State  are  ever 
admitted  into  the  sacred  enclosures  of  the  Nizam’s 
private  life.  The  home  secretary  of  Hyderabad, 
who  was  frequently  my  host,  told  me  that  he  had 
only  seen  the  Nizam  privately  once  or  twice  during 
his  entire  term  of  office. 

During  my  first  day’s  visit  in  this  ancient  city,  I 
was  brought  into  practical  realization  of  the  pres- 
ence of  this  unseen  Ruler  and  the  dignity  of  his 
household.  One  of  my  first  objects  in  visiting  the 
State  was  to  study  the  schools  and  the  system  of 
education  in  order  to  compare  the  education  carried 
on  by  the  native  rulers  with  that  of  the  British  in 
the  large  English-ruled  cities.  The  Director  of  Edu- 
cation had  arranged  to  meet  me  the  morning  fol- 
lowing my  arrival  to  conduct  me  upon  a tour  of 
inspection  through  the  Nizam’s  schools.  This  offi- 
cial appeared  in  the  morning  to  say  resignedly  that 
there  would  be  no  schools  held  in  the  city  that  day 
because  a prince  had  been  born  that  morning  at  the 
palace.  We,  therefore,  arranged  to  visit  the  schools 
the  next  morning.  Even  before  the  Director  ar- 
rived the  following  day,  we  heard  the  guns  firing, 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  111 


which  I soon  learned  designated  the  fact  of  the  birth 
of  royalty  and  the  stoppage  of  education.  The  Di- 
rector appeared  as  before  saying,  “I  am  very  sorry 
but  to-day  also  is  a holiday,  another  prince  is 
born.”  As  my  visit  lengthened  necessarily  as  I de- 
sired to  have  considerable  time  to  visit  thoroughly 
the  schools  and  as  nearly  half  of  my  time  in  old 
Hyderabad  was  passed  in  school  holidays,  I became 
convinced  of  the  fact  that  Hyderabad,  although 
placed  in  modern  India,  was  in  spirit  and  custom 
as  old  as  the  Orient  itself. 

The  present  Nizam  is  a comparatively  young  man 
and  is  said  to  be  taking  up  his  government  from  the 
hands  of  his  father  with  a rather  high  hand.  Gos- 
sip tells  us  that  when  the  late  Nizam  died  there  was 
a cartload  of  broken  glass  bracelets,  the  bracelets 
that  are  worn  by  wives  but  are  broken  on  the  wrists 
of  widows,  taken  away  from  the  palace.  This  late 
ruler  was  credited  with  a great  many  more  wives 
than  he  actually  possessed.  Hyderabad  is  a feudal 
country  similar  to  France  when  Louis  the  Eleventh 
reigned.  The  Nizam  is  the  overlord.  His  feudal 
princes,  Zeminars,  when  possessing  a pretty  daugh- 
ter, are  always  anzious  to  give  her  as  wife  to  the 
Nizam.  He  perhaps  may  accept  her  and  send  her  to 
his  women’s  quarters,  never  seeing  her  again.  But 
her  people  are  satisfied,  as  they  have  the  honor  of 
having  a daughter  in  the  imperial  Zenana,  conse- 
quently a friend  at  court,  as  she  will  naturally  re- 
member her  relations  when  imperial  offices  or  gifts 
are  being  distributed.  She  receives  a stated  income 
said  to  range  from  sixty  dollars  a month  to  four 
hundred,  according  to  her  status,  number  of  chil- 
dren, etc. 


112  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


No  small  part  of  the  history  of  Hyderabad  is 
written  in  the  language  of  intrigue  and  feminine  du- 
plicity. In  spite  of  the  Western  impression  that 
the  secluded  women  of  the  East  are  more  or  less 
slaves  and  powerless,  one  does  not  live  long  in  the 
Orient  without  discovering  that  the  Eastern  woman 
is  a powerful  factor  and  that  she  secures  her  ends 
by  intuitive  trickery. 

One  hears  in  Hyderabad  the  romantic  tale  con- 
nected with  the  uprising  of  the  women  in  the  Zenana 
against  the  present  Nizam  because  of  what  they  con- 
sidered his  injustice. 

The  former  Nizam  had  his  favorites  and  to  one 
of  them  especially  he  showed  a love  and  an  affec- 
tion rather  rare  in  an  Eastern  potentate.  She  bore 
him  a son  and  because  of  her  place  in  her  master’s 
heart,  the  women  of  the  palace  planned  to  kill  the 
boy.  The  details  of  the  plot  came  to  the  Nizam’s 
ears  and  in  the  middle  of  the  night  he  took  the 
mother  and  the  boy  in  a cart  and  went  far  into  the 
country  where  he  hid  them  in  the  house  of  a servant 
on  one  of  his  estates.  He  returned  to  the  palace 
and  meted  out  punishment  swift  and  sure  to  the 
culprits  and  he  did  not  allow  the  boy  and  his  mother 
to  return  until  their  safety  was  assured.  He  had 
another  wife  of  whom  he  was  very  fond,  but  he  dis- 
covered her  in  a lie  and  he  never  saw  her  again. 
Before  he  banished  her,  from  the  palace  to  the  es- 
tates, he  had  made  her  a very  rich  woman,  and  when 
the  new  Nizam  came  to  the  throne  he  cast  a covetous 
eye  upon  the  rich  properties  and  sent  for  the  widow 
to  come  to  Hyderabad.  She  was  compelled  to  obey 
and  found  herself  virtually  a prisoner  within  the 
palace.  She  used  her  woman’s  ingenuity  to  get  out 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  113 


of  Hyderabad  and  back  to  the  country  where  she 
would  be  safe  in  the  midst  of  her  own  people.  She 
knew  that  all  the  women  in  the  palace  of  the  old 
Nizam  were  rebellious  because  of  the  action  of  the 
new  ruler  in  regard  to  their  allowances.  He,  justly, 
as  one  might  think,  decided  that  widows  who  were 
supposed  to  live  a life  of  absolute  simplicity,  eating 
only  one  meal  a day  and  that  cooked  by  their  own 
hands,  who  could  only  be  clothed  in  plain  white 
cotton,  and  supposed  not  to  indulge  in  any  frivoli- 
ties, nor  buy  new  clothes,  nor  think  of  worldly  things 
at  all,  simply  meditate  upon  matters  spiritual,  did 
not  need  the  thousands  of  rupees  that  were  going 
out  of  the  Imperial  treasury  each  month.  He  also 
said,  “What  do  widows  want  with  jewelry;  they 
cannot  wear  it.  I will  take  it.”  He  did  not  count 
on  woman’s  love  for  jewels,  even  if  they  were  for- 
bidden, or  the  clever  plotting  of  the  eternal  femi- 
nine. 

The  palace  was  next  door  to  the  big  Mosque  where 
the  Mohammedan  men  of  the  city  came  to  worship, 
and  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Mosque  was  the  tomb 
of  the  Nizam.  A hole  was  made  in  the  palace  wall, 
and  at  prayer  time,  when  many  of  the  devout  men 
of  Hyderabad  were  solemnly  kneeling  and  bowing 
and  praying  to  Allah,  about  five  hundred  women  of 
the  palace  rushed  through  the  hole  and  threw  them- 
selves upon  the  tomb  of  their  lord  and  master,  the 
late  Nizam.  The  astonished  worshipers  gathered 
their  shoes  and  flew,  because  they  could  not  look 
upon  the  faces  of  those  from  within  the  Zenana  with- 
out a decided  breach  of  every  law,  Mohammedan  as 
well  as  civil. 

The  bewildered  Nizam  did  not  know  what  to  do. 


114  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


It  was  an  unheard  of  thing,  and  there  was  no 
precedent  on  which  to  act.  He  sent  for  the  Prime 
Minister,  who  was  also  nonplused,  and  used  every 
argument  he  knew  to  persuade  the  ladies  to  return, 
but  in  vain.  They  said  they  were  going  to  stay 
upon  the  tomb  of  their  lord  until  they  starved.  In 
the  meantime  the  Mosque  was  practically  closed  to 
the  worshipers  as  no  man  dared  to  come  near  the 
place,  and  the  town  was  ringing  with  the  scandal 
which  flies  so  quickly  in  these  Eastern  lands.  He 
finally  sent  for  the  Commander  of  the  Army,  an  old 
man  well  versed  in  the  intriguing  diplomacy  of  the 
Orient.  This  man  put  five  hundred  of  his  troops 
from  another  Province  around  the  Mosque,  then  told 
the  women  that  he  would  give  them  until  a certain 
time  to  return  to  the  Zenana,  and  if  they  were  not 
in  their  rooms  at  the  appointed  hour,  he  would  al- 
low his  men  to  enter  the  court  and  do  their  will. 
Even  this  did  not  frighten  them,  as  they  said  they 
wished  to  diet  and  after  much  parleying,  the  general 
pledged  them  his  word  that  their  jewelry  would  be 
returned  and  a certain  amount  of  money  allowed 
them.  They  finally  went  hack  to  their  quarters  and 
the  general  had  the  whole  wall  covered  with  heavy 
iron  bars,  in  order  that  this  particular  calamity 
would  not  happen  again.  In  the  meantime  the 
woman  with  the  estates  who  had  planned  the  whole 
revolution  had  escaped.  She  had  drawn  the  atten- 
tion of  the  entire  court  to  the  women  of  the  Mosque, 
and  quietly  went  out  of  a side  door,  and  was  well 
on  her  way  to  her  home  before,  in  the  excitement, 
she  was  missed. 

Although  the  government  of  the  State  of  Hydera- 
bad with  its  more  than  80,000  square  miles  of  area 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  115 


and  its  11,000,000  population,  is  in  a certain  sense 
a kingdom  governed  by  the  Nizam  King,  it  also,  as 
we  have  said,  bears  a resemblance  to  an  ancient 
feudal  state.  It  is  a land  of  immense  hereditary  es- 
tates, which  are  nominally  held  by  landlords  as 
trustees  for  the  Nizam  who  can  confiscate  them  at 
his  will.  The  holders  are  supposed  to  furnish  him 
with  a certain  number  of  men  in  time  of  trouble, 
but  now,  when  India  is  ruled  by  the  English,  in- 
stead of  asking  for  men,  the  Nizam  asks  for  rupees, 
and  if  stories  are  true,  he  asks  for  a great  many  of 
them. 

One  of  the  greatest  land  holders  is  the  hereditary 
Prime  Minister.  He  has  twenty  villages  and  over 
6,000  people  of  whom  he  is  actual  owner.  An  official 
told  me  that  the  Nizam  had  lately  confiscated  the 
estates  of  his  aunt,  because  she  had  allowed  her 
daughter  to  marry  a man  out  of  the  royal  line,  a 
commoner.  He  deported  him,  and  the  wife  and 
mother-in-law  secretly  sent  him  three  lakhs  of  ru- 
pees, which  had  fallen,  through  the  treachery  of  a 
trusted  servant,  into  the  Nizam’s  hands.  He  gave 
the  mother  an  allowance,  but  not  anything  to  be 
compared  to  the  $5,000,000  a year  that  the  estates 
yielded.  It  was  said  that  the  estates  had  never  been 
so  well  managed  as  during  the  time  of  this  old  lady, 
who  was  strictly  “purdah”  and  could  neither  read 
nor  write.  She  sat  behind  a screen  and  talked  with 
the  stewards  and  men  of  the  estate,  and  woe  betide 
one  who  forgot  the  least  account,  as  she  had  a mar- 
velous memory.  She  had  the  account  read  her  and 
could  remember  to  a penny  what  was  being  spent 
and  what  the  income  on  certain  property  should  be. 
It  is  a well  known  fact  in  India  that  estates  managed 


116  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


by  widows,  and  a mother  is  often  regent  when  the 
son  is  under  legal  age,  are  well  managed.  When 
an  estate  is  in  a bad  condition,  they  say,  “it  needs 
a widow’s  nursing.”  The  widow  does  not  enter- 
tain lavishly,  as  she  would  if  she  were  a wife,  nor 
does  she  spend  money  in  jewelry  or  finery,  being  re- 
stricted to  cotton  or  the  simplest  dresses;  she  must 
eat  no  meat,  go  to  no  festivals,  and  practically  lives 
the  life  of  a nun.  It  is,  therefore,  natural  that 
money  could  be  saved  or  expended  in  improving 
the  estate,  which,  in  the  hands  of  a man,  would  be 
spent  in  keeping  up  a large  Zenana  or  in  dissipation, 
or  in  the  luxurious  entertainments  for  which  the 
Oriental  is  noted. 

This  ancient  type  of  government  is  offset  in  part 
by  a nominal  modernity  in  politics  consisting  of  a 
departmental  government  plan  with  men  of  modern 
education  at  the  head  as  secretaries.  These  men  are 
endeavoring  to  incorporate  as  rapidly  as  possible 
the  ideas  and  methods  of  British  India.  The  pres- 
ence of  an  English  Resident  is  also  a check  upon 
ancient  Mogul  tendencies.  As  yet  however  the 
Nizam,  with  his  enormous  personal  income,  also 
largely  controls  the  State  revenue  which  amounts 
approximately  to  $12,000,000  annually.  In  contrast 
to  the  uplifting  and  enlightening  measures  adopted 
by  such  native  princes  as  the  Ruler  of  Mysore, 
Hyderabad  is  still  very  far  in  the  rear  of  present 
day  Indian  progress. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  one  of  the  reasons  for 
this  retardation  of  advance  is  the  strict  seclusion 
of  the  women,  both  Mohammedan  and  Hindu,  for 
this  seclusion  has  carried  with  it  backwardness  of 
education  for  women  and  all  the  attendant  evils  of 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  117 


the  restricted  purdah  system.  The  custom  is  still 
holding  this  State  in  a firm  grasp.  The  women  take 
it  as  a matter  of  course  and  do  not  seem  to  feel  any 
deprivation  in  being  obliged  to  pass  their  lives 
among  women  only.  Indeed,  they  would  feel  ill  at 
the  thought  of  being  seen  by  any  man  except  their 
husband,  brother,  or  immediate  relatives.  My  wife 
was  visiting  a Mohammedan  lady  who  is  strictly 
‘‘purdah.”  They  were  taken  into  a drawing  room 
where  the  father-in-law  of  the  hostess  was  chatting 
with  another  gentleman.  Her  attendant  went  into 
the  woman’s  quarters  to  see  the  mistress.  She  re- 
turned soon  and  said  to  the  men,  “You  must  leave 
now,”  and  both  men  went  out.  The  lady  entered, 
exquisitely  dressed  in  a light  blue  sari.  As  she  sat 
down  she  saw  that  one  of  the  blinds  of  the  windows 
was  partially  open  and  she  quickly  drew  her  sari 
across  her  face  speaking  to  the  attendant  who  went 
to  the  window  and  closed  the  blind.  This  did  not 
fully  satisfy  her,  however,  and  a servant  was  called 
who  went  to  all  the  windows  seeing  that  they  were 
securely  closed  and  that  no  one  could  possibly  look 
into  the  room  from  the  outside. 

It  seemed  a useless  precaution  since  the  windows 
opened  upon  a garden,  and  no  one  could  pass  except 
one  of  the  household.  The  lady  laughed  apologeti- 
cally and  said,  “I  know  what  you  think,  but  I can- 
not sit  here  with  any  degree  of  comfort  thinking 
that  one  of  my  husband’s  guests  or  even  one  of  the 
men  servants  might  pass  by  and  look  in  and  see  me 
unveiled.  It  is  an  instinct.  My  mother  and  my 
mother’s  mother  were  purdah  women,  and  it  is  in 
my  blood.” 

Among  the  many  institutions  which  I visited  in 


118  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


this  State,  the  Nizam  College  and  the  school  for  the 
training  of  the  young  princes,  presided  over  by  Eng- 
lishmen easily  took  the  lead.  Modern  education, 
however,  is  having  its  battle  in  the  native  State  of 
Hyderabad.  The  Mohammedan  schools  are  for  the 
most  part  in  the  hands  of  the  old  time  Moslem  teach- 
ers. The  Koran  is  still  the  piece  de  resistance , 
though  modern  subjects  are  being  introduced. 
There  is  a system  of  inspection  of  schools  though 
the  evils  of  the  old  time  Oriental  are  still  prevalent 
even  here. 

I asked  one  of  the  officials  of  the  government 
about  the  introduction  of  compulsory  education. 
He  said  it  would  be  impossible  at  present,  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  they  could  not  secure  in- 
spectors honest  enough  to  collect  the  fines.  In  my 
tours  in  this  State  I repeatedly  came  across  bribery 
among  educational  officials,  a rupee  or  two  slipped 
into  the  hand  of  the  inspector  by  the  rural  school- 
teacher being  capable  of  bringing  a perfect  report 
to  the  authorities  at  Hyderabad. 

In  the  city  itself,  however,  under  the  leadership 
of  such  really  able  and  cultured  gentlemen  as  A. 
Hydari,  educational  advance  is  apparent.  This 
Home  Secretary  arranged  an  educational  conference 
for  me  in  the  city  which  was  attended  by  scores  of 
representatives,  both  Mohammedan  and  Hindu, 
whose  ideas  and  intelligence  augur  well  for  the  fu- 
ture of  learning  even  in  this  backward  State. 

These  advances  in  education  are  not  confined 
merely  to  the  leadership  of  Englishmen  and  those 
espousing  the  Western  religion.  Mohammedan 
gentlemen  who  go  from  the  Mosques  to  the  school 
are  becoming  keen  for  both  moral  and  educational 


GLIMPSES  OF  OLD  HYDERABAD  119 


advance.  Despite  the  somewhat  horrid  and  shock- 
ing discrepancies  which  one  finds  in  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  Nizam  State,  one  discovers  true 
Moslem  devoutness  here. 

I shall  not  forget  a certain  afternoon  when  a 
prominent  Mohammedan  official  took  us  in  his  mo- 
tor car  to  visit  the  old  Golconda  Fort  and  ruins  on 
the  edge  of  this  antique  city.  We  had  climbed  to 
the  very  pinnacle  of  these  ancient  piles,  the  serv- 
ants bringing  our  luncheon  which  we  were  to  take 
on  the  top  of  the  fort  as  we  watched  the  sunset. 
The  dull  brown  hills  that  guard  old  Hyderabad 
were  just  touched  with  the  evening  sun  as  there 
came  the  united  voices  of  the  Muzzein  from  the  min- 
arets of  the  city: 

Allah ! Allah ! 

Come  to  prayer, 

There  is  no  God  hut  God, 

And  Mahomet  is  his  Prophet. 

My  host,  the  Mohammedan  gentleman,  quietly 
and  unostentatiously  excused  himself  and  gliding 
down  the  narrow  stairway  passed  to  a little  nook 
out  of  sight  of  the  company.  I walked  to  the  edge 
of  the  parapet  somewhat  curious,  when  I saw  my 
host  who  had  spread  his  prayer  cloth  before  him, 
prostrating  himself  in  utter  devotion  with  his  face 
toward  Mecca.  When  he  returned  there  were  tears 
upon  his  cheeks  and  his  face  had  changed.  As  we 
sat  in  silence  at  this  memorable  historic  spot  watch- 
ing the  dying  tropical  day,  I thought  of  the  old  Suffi 
proverb:  “There  are  as  many  paths  to  God  as 

there  are  feet  to  tread  them.” 

If  Mohammedanism  could  be  universally  repre- 


120  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


sented  by  men  of  such  devoutness,  tbe  West  would 
hardly  need  to  send  missionaries  to  Islam.  I was 
glad  to  note  that  even  in  this  ancient  stronghold  of 
the  Moslem,  Hyderabad,  the  uplifting  and  civiliz- 
ing influences  of  the  Western  faith  were  gradually 
touching  that  Oriental  religion.  While  converts  to 
Christianity  are  not  the  direct  result,  the  indirect 
influence  of  Christian  thought  and  ideals  is  being 
felt.  The  outcome  is  such  men  as  this  one  of  whom 
I have  spoken,  and  in  such  men  the  real  hope  of  fu- 
ture India  lies. 


IX 


The  Gaekwar  of  Baroda,  Progressive 

IF  Emerson  was  correct  in  saying  that  an  institu- 
tion is  but  “the  lengthened  shadow  of  a man,” 
a simple  way  to  discover  a nation  is  to  study  as 
many  as  possible  of  its  leading  men.  Indeed,  one 
soon  learns  in  the  study  of  nations  that  he  does  not 
catch  the  spirit  or  the  message  of  a people  simply 
by  marching  through  buildings  or  by  hurtling 
across  the  land  in  a railway  train,  but  rather  by 
being  with  a nation’s  great  personalities,  noting 
their  aims,  their  aptitudes,  their  principles  and 
their  pastimes.  One  must  find  out  what  persons 
like,  what  they  read  or  talk  about,  what  they  work 
at  most  enthusiastically — whither  they  seem  to  be 
tending.  In  such  investigation  the  student  is  al- 
ways finding  that  behind  the  industry  is  the  indi- 
vidual, hack  of  education  is  the  educationalist,  and 
below  the  modern  method  is  always  the  modern 
man. 

During  my  sojourns  in  India  I have  met  hun- 
dreds of  prominent  Indians — officials,  judges,  teach- 
ers, merchants,  politicians.  But  no  man  expressed 
more  vividly  to  me  certain  traits  of  the  coming  In- 
dian than  did  His  Highness  the  Maharajah  of 
Baroda,  in  whose  home  city  I spent  a memorable 
week. 

To  be  sure  this  Maharajah  is  an  unusual  Indian. 
He  is  the  absolute  ruler  of  more  than  two  million 

121 


122  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


people  who  occupy  an  area  of  eight  thousand  square 
miles  in  the  most  progressive  native  state  of  India. 
He  has  journeyed  ten  times  to  the  Western  world 
and  has  girdled  the  globe.  He  possesses  an  annual 
state  revenue  of  1,333,330  English  pounds,  or  ap- 
proximately $6,666,650,  or  3,653  pounds  ($18,000)  a 
day,  which  he  may  spend  as  he  likes,  since  he  is  a 
truly  Oriental  ruler  with  unlimited  sway  in  his  own 
dominions. 

The  manner  in  which  His  Highness  spends  this 
money  marks  him  as  an  unusual  Indian,  for  while 
his  court  and  his  life  are  Orientally  splendid,  his 
chief  pleasure  and  objective  consist  in  the  develop- 
ment of  his  State  and  in  making  happy  and  pros- 
perous his  people.  As  Napoleon  represented 
France  because  he  gathered  up  into  his  personality 
more  of  the  elements  of  French  character,  and  these 
in  more  perfect  combination  than  any  other  man 
of  his  time,  I am  inclined  to  think  that  the  Gaekwar 
of  Baroda,  despite  his  mistakes  (and  they  are 
many),  comes  nearer  to  representing  what  the  en- 
lightened Indian  ruler  of  this  generation  is  becom- 
ing than  any  other  man  in  present-day  India,  a fact 
of  great  significance  for  the  future. 

While  to  understand  the  Oriental  mind  and  mode 
of  action,  far  less  to  analyze  it,  is  for  the  Westerner 
an  almost  impossible  task,  there  are  several  traits 
so  pronounced  in  this  ruler’s  character  that  no  one 
could  be  his  guest  and  in  his  domain,  even  for  a 
week,  without  appreciating  them. 

One  of  the  things  that  impressed  me  in  my  first 
interview  with  His  Highness  was  his  freedom  from 
caste  prejudice.  During  a previous  visit  to  India 
I had  become  accustomed  to  make  allowance  for 


GAEKWAR  BARODA,  PROGRESSIVE  123 


caste  feeling  even  among  educated  men.  I found 
students  having  their  individual  cooks  in  their 
boarding  houses,  since  to  eat  food  prepared  by  a 
cook  of  a different  caste  than  themselves  would  he 
highly  improper  religiously.  I had  learned  that  a 
European  could  hardly  expect  a Hindu  to  sit  down 
at  the  same  table  with  him,  and  indeed  I was  often 
aware  that  the  Hindu  students  who  talked  with  me 
privately  were  obliged  by  their  rigid  caste  princi- 
ples to  return  to  their  home,  change  their  clothes, 
and  bathe  before  they  might  themselves  partake  of 
food,  so  great  was  the  contamination  of  the  pres- 
ence of  a foreigner.  I had  seen  Brahmins  make  a 
wide  circle  in  the  street  around  the  man  of  lower 
caste  than  themselves,  while  in  certain  parts  of  In- 
dia it  is  true  even  to-day  that  a Brahmin  cannot 
pass  within  fifty  feet  of  the  Indian  of  the  lowest 
caste,  or  even  allow  his  shadow  to  fall  upon  him 
without  pollution. 

What  was  my  surprise,  then,  to  hear  this  Hindu 
Maharajah  say  in  the  first  few  words  of  our  con- 
versation, “We  would  like  to  have  you  and  Mrs. 
Cooper  dine  with  us  at  the  Palace.  You  see,”  he 
continued,  “caste  feeling  is  loosening  in  India. 
Twenty  years  ago  I would  never  have  thought  of 
dining  with  you  or  with  any  one  outside  of  my 
caste.” 

Few  who  have  not  been  in  India  can  realize  what 
such  breaking  with  Hindu  customs  means  to  the 
Hindu,  for  the  very  history  of  the  Hindu  people 
has  been  fitly  described  as  a great  systole  and  di- 
astole of  caste.  The  national  pulse  is  controlled  by 
it. 

I soon  learned  that  the  Maharajah  had  not  only 


124  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


disregarded  caste  for  liimself  at  the  expense  of  no 
small  persecution  from  the  Brahmins,  but  that  he 
was  energetically  promoting  this  breadth  of  view 
among  his  subjects. 

He  is  a pioneer  in  the  education  of  the  “de- 
pressed classes,”  or  what  is  colloquially  styled  the 
“sweeper  class”  or  the  “untouchables.”  If  stu- 
dents of  this  class  have  even  been  fortunate  enough 
to  go  to  school,  which  has  been  in  rare  instances, 
they  have  been  obliged  to  sit  outside  the  room  oc- 
cupied by  the  other  students.  In  certain  places  I 
have  seen  these  boys  sitting  or  standing  upon  a ve- 
randa, peering  in  at  the  window  of  a schoolroom 
where  their  more  fortunate  companions  of  higher 
caste  were  studying  or  reciting.  No  strictly  ortho- 
dox Hindu  student  or  teacher  could  sit  in  the  same 
room  with  them  without  desecration  to  his  caste 
principles. 

The  Gaekwar  is  rapidly  changing  such  pitiful  and 
tragic  conditions  for  this  section  of  his  people.  He 
is  not  only  building  schoolhouses  for  this  class,  but 
he  has  insisted  that  they  shall  take  their  places  in 
schoolrooms  with  other  students,  though  they  usu- 
ally sit  apart.  He  has  also  further  emphasized  his 
wishes  by  issuing  the  Imperial  and  strict  order  to 
his  Ministers  of  Education  that  any  teacher  who 
refuses  to  teach  these  boys  or  shows  them  any  in- 
dignity be  immediately  dismissed  and  another  in- 
structor secured  in  his  place. 

The  Educational  Minister  told  me  that  only  the 
week  before  my  visit  to  Baroda  the  Maharajah  had 
invited  scores  of  these  students  of  the  depressed 
classes  to  the  Palace,  serving  them  with  refresh- 
ments and  sweetmeats  in  the  Grand  Durbar  Hall, 


me  Minister  of  A Parsec  schoolmaster  The  Head  Man  of  a Ra-  On  the  way  to  school 
Baroda  roda  village 


such  as  scissors,  combs,  mirrors,  etc, 


GAEKWAR  BARODA,  PROGRESSIVE  125 


and  had  listened  with  especial  delight  to  their  songs 
and  recitations.  “I  have  never  seen  His  Highness 
more  pleased/’  said  the  Minister.  Such  an  exam- 
ple in  a native  state,  where  the  ruler’s  every  act 
assumes  the  authority  among  his  people  of  an  in- 
stitution, foreshadows  a new  attitude  of  mind  in 
the  coming  Indian. 

It  was  not  long  before  I perceived  that  this  na- 
tive chief  was  not  simply  socially  in  advance  of  the 
usual  Hindu,  but  that  he  was,  moreover,  a progres- 
sive educationalist  to  his  people.  I found  an  effi- 
cient school  system,  from  primary  to  college  grade, 
with  one  of  the  most  thoroughgoing  industrial, 
educational  institutions  I have  seen  in  India.  I 
visited  with'  much  interest  the  schools  His  Highness 
has  established  for  girls,  where  these  young  women 
are  taught  especially  practical  arts.  I found  nor- 
mal schools  for  training  teachers,  dormitories  for 
the  housing  of  high-school  and  preparatory  school 
boys,  and  out-of-door  athletic  sports  similar  to 
those  which  one  finds  in  England  and  America.  I 
was  especially  impressed  with  the  advantages  which 
this  up-to-date  ruler  has  made  possible  for  Indian 
widows,  who  are  privileged  to  enter  his  schools, 
aided  by  scholarships,  to  secure  an  education  and 
equipment  for  teaching  which  will  furnish  them  op- 
portunities for  a remunerative  and  honorable  life- 
work. 

I found  here  also  the  pioneer  system  of  compul- 
sory education  in  India.  The  thing  which  the  usual 
official  of  British  India  as  well  as,  until  recently, 
the  majority  of  rulers  of  native  States,  considered 
impossible,  is  happening  in  Baroda,  namely,  the 
enforced  education  of  children.  In  this  State,  at 


126  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


least,  the  emphasis  of  educational  reform  has  been 
changed  from  the  upper  side  of  literary  and  liberal 
education  to  the  place  where  it  properly  belongs — 
at  first,  at  least — to  the  rudimentary  training  of 
Indian  youth.  Out  of  280,000  children  of  school- 
going age,  seven  to  eleven,  the  figures,  as  shown  me 
by  the  Minister  of  Education,  reveal  that  last  year 
180,000  attended  school.  If  even  one-half  or  one- 
fourth  of  this  number  were  in  school,  it  would  have 
been  a decided  gain  over  the  condition  in  a majority 
of  the  native  States. 

At  Hyderabad,  for  example,  where  I spent  some 
time  in  the  largest  native  State  of  India  and  the 
chief  Mohammedan  feudatory  of  the  country,  the 
contrast  is  glaring.  Not  only  is  there  no  compul- 
sory education,  hut  as  far  as  one  could  gather  there 
is  no  system  whatever  worthy  of  the  name  through 
the  rural  districts.  In  fact,  the  illiteracy  outside  of 
the  city  of  Hyderabad  is  almost  complete.  In  com- 
parison with  such  conditions,  Baroda  is  at  least  a 
hundred  years  in  advance  of  the  educational  times 
in  this  land. 

The  difficulty  of  enforcing  compulsory  education 
is  necessarily  very  great,  for  the  people  have  not 
yet  learned  the  value  of  mental  training  over  the 
value  of  the  rupee.  In  going  through  a native  vil- 
lage in  Baroda,  I came  across  an  incident  which  re- 
veals the  extreme  difficulty  which  the  attendance  of- 
ficers encounter  in  their  endeavor  to  make  primary 
education  general. 

A certain  woman  whose  son  of  school-going  age 
was  earning  seven  rupees  a month  insisted  upon 
keeping  her  son  at  work  and  paying  two  of  the  seven 


GAEKWAK  BARODA,  PROGEESSIVE  127 


rupees  to  the  attendance  officers  as  a fine  for  her 
son’s  absence  from  the  schoolroom. 

Much  difficulty  is  also  encountered  in  securing 
the  exact  number  of  children  in  a given  household, 
for  almost  invariably  the  head  of  the  household 
will  forget  to  count  his  daughters  among  his  chil- 
dren, so  long  has  the  Easterner  been  accustomed 
to  disregard  the  existence  of  girl  children.  Time 
will  fight,  however,  on  the  side  of  the  Gaekwar’s 
policy.  In  Mysore,  a large  native  State  in  South 
India,  I find  the  example  of  Baroda  has  been  con- 
tagious, for  the  legislature  is  expected  to  pass  a bill 
for  a like  compulsory  educational  law  which  will 
affect  five  and  one-half  million  inhabitants  in  the 
second  largest  Hindu  State  of  the  country. 

The  Maharajah  of  Baroda ’s  interest  in  education 
is  also  exhibited  in  his  generous  grants  of  money 
for  the  erection  of  school  buildings  and  teachers’ 
salaries.  He  is  himself  a personal  inspector  of  his 
educational  policy.  During  my  investigation  of  the 
different  grades  of  education,  I found  that  His 
Highness  had  frequently  been  a visitor  the  same 
week  or  possibly  the  week  before,  or  that  he  had 
been  meeting  there  with  certain  workers  in  whom 
he  was  interested.  I found  that  he  invariably 
talked  to  the  children  themselves  during  his  visits, 
inquiring  as  to  what  they  intended  to  do  with  their 
education,  and  exhibiting  a genuine  personal  inter- 
est in  their  home  life. 

One  day  I discovered  him  taking  another  native 
chief,  who  was  his  guest,  to  visit  the  State  library, 
which  he  has  made  the  center  for  distributing  libra- 
ries throughout  his  domain.  The  Maharajah  has 


128  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


shown  his  leanings  toward  America  and  American 
methods  by  seeking  out  one  of  our  librarians,  Mr. 
William  A.  Borden,  and  putting  him  in  charge  of  a 
new  library  plan  by  which  330  libraries  containing 
170,000  books  have  been  established  in  the  villages 
and  towns  of  this  State.  Last  year  57,296  volumes 
were  drawn  from  these  libraries  by  the  native  pop- 
ulation. The  government  appropriates  the  major 
amount  for  these  libraries,  but  insists  that  the  peo- 
ple in  each  village  or  community  raise  a certain 
fund  in  advance.  This  fund  is  secured  by  a library 
inspector  who  works  with  the  people,  arousing 
public  opinion  concerning  the  value  of  such  an  in- 
stitution in  the  village.  Quite  often  the  schoolmas- 
ter and  a few  of  the  officials  in  the  village  form  a 
committee  in  charge  of  this  important  work,  which 
is  now  going  hand  in  hand  with  compulsory  edu- 
cation in  these  communities. 

In  addition  to  these  stationary  libraries,  one  hun- 
dred traveling  libraries,  each  consisting  of  thirty 
books,  and  remaining  in  a locality  for  three  months, 
are  in  circulation  among  the  smaller  rural  villages. 
These  libraries  are  especially  valuable  to  the  women 
of  these  country  sections,  who,  in  many  cases,  espe- 
cially among  the  Mohammedans,  are  in  “purdah” 
and  confined  to  their  homes.  Plans  are  made  to 
send  these  books  behind  the  bars  of  this  Eastern 
seclusion,  giving  the  women  the  first  glimpse  often 
of  the  life  outside  in  the  modern  world. 

The  Gaekwar’s  personal  interest  in  the  enlight- 
enment of  his  people  was  illustrated  when,  after 
purchasing  a moving  picture  machine,  he  wished  to 
go  quietly  to  see  the  pictures  and  to  note  the  effect 
upon  the  people.  Waiting  until  the  room  was  dark- 


GAEKWAR  BARODA,  PROGRESSIVE  129 


ened,  attended  only  by  one  of  bis  secretaries,  be 
slipped  into  a back  seat  of  tbe  ball,  and  was  so  de- 
lighted with  tbe  interest  and  pleasure  of  tbe  audi- 
ence that  be  forthwith  ordered  four  more  cinemato- 
graph machines  for  educational  use  through  the 
outlying  provinces. 

This  ruler’s  intellectual  curiosity  regarding 
everything  that  is  being  done  in  the  modem  world 
is  enormous.  Like  the  Japanese,  he  is  not  ashamed 
to  borrow  any  new  means  or  method  that  may  suit 
his  purpose.  I hardly  remember  having  been  asked 
more  pointed  questions  during  any  single  hour  of 
my  life  than  His  Highness  put  to  me  one  evening 
at  the  palace,  concerning  progressive  industrial 
and  educational  conditions  in  America.  To  be  sure, 
he  combats  the  inaction,  the  indolence  and  the  ab- 
sence of  self-reliance  born  of  centuries.  But  one 
can  see  the  signs  of  a new  day  breaking  upon  the 
minds  and  purposes  of  his  people.  The  coming 
man  of  India  must  necessarily  be  for  many  years  a 
progressive  educationalist.  Like  America,  India 
must  rise  out  of  enforced  education  into  wide- 
spread, voluntary  education,  an  education,  too,  that 
is  not  merely  literary,  but  applicable  directly  to  the 
“daily  round”  and  the  “common  task.” 

No  one  should  surmise,  however,  that  “the  lit- 
tle man,”  as  he  is  generally  called  by  his  officials, 
is  merely  a director  of  education  or  a propagan- 
dist of  new  social  ideas  alone.  He  is  the  ruler  of  his 
people  in  the  Oriental  sense  and  his  dictum  is  law, 
whether  for  life  or  for  death  of  his  subjects.  The 
Maharajah  would  probably  say,  if  you  asked  him 
concerning  government,  that  India  has  been  the 
theater  of  personal  and  absolute  government  so  far 


130  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


back  as  tlie  imagination  can  reach;  that  democracy, 
as  we  know  it  in  the  United  States,  is  not  under- 
stood in  the  East;  that  no  Oriental  nation,  in  fact, 
save  possibly  Turkey,  in  her  fitfully  doubtful  ex- 
periment, has  attempted  constitutional  government. 
In  fact,  although  the  Maharajah  has  formed  a kind 
of  cabinet  of  six  officers  and  has  brought  into  be- 
ing legislative  and  municipal  councils,  no  one  sus- 
pects for  a moment  that  the  Gaekwar  of  Baroda  is 
any  the  less  the  soul  and  absolute  sovereign  of  his 
state. 

Any  one  who  has  witnessed  a Durbar  at  Baroda, 
with  its  long  lines  of  splendidly  decorated  elephants, 
with  the  uniformed  native  soldiers  reaching  the  en- 
tire distance  from  the  station  to  the  palace,  while 
the  Maharajah,  ablaze  with  gems  and  royal  insig- 
nia, rides  in  Oriental  state  upon  his  richly  capari- 
soned elephant — any  one  who  has  seen  these  kingly 
events  is  not  likely  to  forget  that  the  ruler,  like  his 
ancestral  Mahratta  Gaekwars,  is  supreme  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  his  State.  “Westernization”  has 
not  crushed  out  his  Orientalism  and  love  of  display 
or  power.  His  collection  of  gems  is  estimated  to 
be  worth  six  million  pounds,  or  $30,000,000.  The 
half  is  hard  to  tell  of  his  riches  of  ornament  and 
jewels.  He  possesses  cannon  and  chariots  and 
howdahs  of  solid  gold  and  silver.  The  famous  car- 
pet of  pearls  and  precious  stones,  his  great  estab- 
lishments for  entertainment,  his  motor  cars  and 
palaces  which  await  him  in  various  parts  of  India, 
speak  eloquently  of  Oriental  ideas  of  royalty. 

But  the  characteristic  which  lingers  in  my  mind 
concerning  this  native  ruler  is  not  connected  with 
any  of  these  emblems  of  pomp  and  Eastern  splen- 


GAEKWAR  BARODA,  PROGRESSIVE  131 


dor.  I never  heard  him  even  refer  to  this  ornate 
side  of  his  existence.  It  was  his  benevolence  that 
impressed  me.  Every  one  about  him  spoke  in  al- 
most the  same  terms:  “He  loves  his  people.  His 
first  thought  is  for  the  advancement  and  welfare  of 
Baroda  State.  He  lives  in  the  idea  of  his  progres- 
sive measures.” 

They  told  me  of  how,  in  the  last  famine  in  India, 
he  had  melted  a gold  gun  and  devoted  the  proceeds 
to  buying  food  for  his  famine-stricken  subjects.  A 
commission  was  appointed  not  long  ago  by  the 
Maharajah  to  look  into  the  Imperial  household  ex- 
penses and  also  to  examine  certain  State  establish- 
ments with  a view  to  cutting  down  unnecessary  ex- 
pense, that  the  Gaekwar  might  have  funds  to  use 
upon  education  and  industry. 

Society  life  in  India  was  recently  stirred  by  the 
somewhat  phenomenal  breaking  of  the  alliance  of 
the  Gaekwar ’s  daughter  with  one  of  the  leading  In- 
dian princes,  because  it  was  found  that  in  giving 
this  daughter  he  would  he  giving  her  as  a secondary 
wife.  The  modernized  father  won  over  the  heredi- 
tary despot. 

Shortly  before  leaving  Baroda  I attended  the  un- 
veiling of  a statue  of  Buddha  in  the  public  square 
of  the  city.  The  statue  had  been  purchased  in 
Japan  by  His  Highness  and  was  his  gift  to  the  city. 
The  streets  and  houses  round  about  the  square  were 
packed  with  Barodians.  In  a tent  erected  in  the 
park  upon  a raised  platform  His  Highness  sat  for 
an  hour  and  a half  listening  to  speeches  of  thanks 
in  appreciation  of  his  gift,  while  before  him  sat  long 
rows  of  ministers  and  officials,  and  beyond  them 
the  people  whom  he  loved.  I happened  to  he  sit- 


132  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


ting  witliin  a few  feet  of  him,  and,  as  I could  not 
understand  the  language  of  the  addresses,  I gave 
my  attention  to  the  Maharajah  and  to  the  scene 
about  him.  I saw  something  in  the  eyes  of  this 
much  talked  about  and  picturesque  Indian,  and 
something  in  the  people’s  faces  before  him  which 
gave  me  my  lasting  impression  of  the  Gaekwar  of 
Baroda.  As  he  looked  down  at  the  multitude  of 
motley,  turbanned  folk  beyond  his  row  of  ministers, 
all  straining  their  eyes  for  a glimpse  of  their  king, 
waiting  to  express  in  shouts  their  gratitude  for  un- 
numbered kindnesses,  his  face  seemed  to  change. 
The  aggressive,  energetic  Mahratta  despot  became 
the  benevolent  protector  and  friend  of  his  childlike 
people — as  the  Easterner  likes  to  express  it — the 
“father  and  mother”  of  the  races  of  men  whom  he 
understood,  whom  he  really  loved. 

Although  these  lofty  qualities,  breadth  of  social 
understanding,  progressiveness,  and  benevolence 
still  linger — are,  indeed,  as  yet  ideals  only  in  the 
majority  of  Indian  men — the  very  fact  that  we  are 
reminded  of  them  in  such  types  as  the  ruler  of  Ba- 
roda renews  one’s  hope  for  the  coming  man  of 
India. 


X 


Thkotjgh  an  Indian  Jungle 

IT  is  ten  p.  m.  and  I am  sitting  at  the  little  station 
at  Hardwar  with  the  roar  of  the  Ganges  in  my 
ears  and  about  me  the  high  pitched  notes  of  Hindu 
pilgrims  who  are  being  discharged  by  every  train 
in  squads  of  hundreds. 

Near  me  sits  an  officer  of  the  Indian  Railway 
Police  who  is  waiting  to  establish  his  picket  to-night 
to  guard  the  Viceroy’s  “Special,”  which  comes 
through  Hardwar  on  its  way  to  Delhi  about  mid- 
night. So  thorough  is  this  police  guardianship 
that,  previous  to  the  arrival  of  the  King-Emperor’s 
train,  every  person  save  the  representative  of  the 
Government  police  and  the  station  master,  are  ex- 
cluded from  the  platform,  and  a picket  of  Punjabi 
soldiers  is  placed  about  the  entire  station.  Fur- 
thermore along  the  entire  route,  one  hundred  yards 
apart,  stand  officers,  with  flaming  torches — one  on 
one  side  the  track,  with  his  alternate  on  the  other 
side,  so  that  any  person  crossing  the  tracks  between 
their  lights  could  easily  be  discovered. 

This  police  system  which  has  been  doubled  in  its 
numbers  and  watchfulness  since  the  attempt  at 
Delhi  upon  the  life  of  the  Viceroy,  is  hardly  a match 
for  the  subtlety  and  traditional  ability  at  intrigue 
of  the  Indian  character,  as  my  young  Anglo-Indian 
officer  companion  in  the  European  waiting-room  re- 
marks, “I  have  lived  in  India  all  my  life,  and  am 

133 


134  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


as  familiar  with  Hindi  and  Modi  as  with  English, 
hut  I am  never  quite  sure  what  is  at  the  back  of 
the  Indian  mind.” 

My  day  had  been  an  eventful  one.  I arrived  at 
the  pilgrim  gathering  place  which  is  situated  at  the 
spot  where  the  Ganges  gushes  out  of  the  northern 
hills  with  a great  natural  bathing  pool,  amid  liter- 
ally a horde  of  Hindu  worshipers  who  have  trav- 
eled by  train  and  on  foot  from  remote  parts  of  In- 
dia. The  average  number  of  pilgrims  arriving  by 
train  at  this  sacred  Hindu  city  is  1,700;  while  sev- 
eral times  each  month  at  the  religious  fairs  or  festi- 
vals, this  number  is  increased  to  tens  of  thousands, 
frequently  reaching  five  hundred  lakhs  or  one-half 
million. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  I made  my  way  through 
the  densely  packed  pilgrim  assemblage  that  blocked 
the  station  and  passage  ways.  It  was  a vast  sea  of 
restlessly  moving  persons  and  paraphernalia. 
Each  pilgrim  carried  on  his  shoulders  a large  bam- 
boo pole  ten  feet  in  length,  on  either  end  of  which 
were  his  brass  jars  and  jugs  made  of  gourds  in 
which  he  will  take  back  to  his  distant  home  the 
water  of  the  sacred  river.  This  water  is  used  in 
the  household  sacrifices  of  the  Indian  coolie  and  is 
also  poured  into  the  mouth  of  the  dead  to  assure 
purification,  for  the  water  of  Mother  Ganges  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  elixir  of  all  kinds  of  renewal  for 
life  physical  and  spiritual  and  social.  It  is  still 
thought  that  the  chief  method  of  purification  from 
the  sin  of  eating  or  becoming  contaminated  by 
touch  of  the  European,  is  a bath  in  these  healing 
waters. 

The  amount  of  superstitious  awe  associated 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  135 


with  these  worshiping  itinerants  is  incredible. 
Wretched,  evil  looking  priests  dole  out  the  water 
or  impose  taxes  for  bathing  at  the  main  bathing 
pool  outside  the  town  where  these  chanting  pil- 
grims march  in  endless  processions.  It  is  thought 
that  certain  spiritual  satisfactions  accrue  to  the 
worshiper  who  pays  these  priests  out  of  his  toil- 
earned  savings.  Often  a pilgrim  gives  dole  of 
hundreds  of  rupees  to  these  mendicant  vagabonds. 
In  short  it  is  said  that  these  almoners  of  the  simple 
ignorant  pilgrims  are  enormously  wealthy.  Even  a 
few  annas  gathered  from  each  pilgrim  would,  in  the 
course  of  a month,  give  a largess  by  no  means  in- 
significant to  these  purveyors  of  ceremonial  Hin- 
duism. 

But  it  was  not  to  witness  these  scenes  alone  that 
I journeyed  to  this  out-of-the-world  spot.  The 
town  of  Hardwar  lies  in  the  lap  of  the  sacred  River 
Ganges  as  this  river  winds  about  the  foothills  of 
the  Himalayas,  and  it  is  also  a kind  of  portal  to  one 
of  those  vast  Indian  jungles  which  stretch  to  the 
north  and  east  almost  endlessly  into  terra  incognita, 
a land  of  half  barbarous  jungle  tribes  and  of  end- 
less varieties  of  wild,  animal  life. 

It  was  in  order  to  pierce  a little  way  into  this 
jungle  for  the  sake  of  visiting  one  of  the  most 
unique  institutions  in  India,  that  I made  this  jour- 
ney. 

This  Institution  is  called  the  Gurukula,  or,  as 
the  title  means  in  Sanskrit,  “The  Family  of  the 
Teacher.”  It  is  the  training  place  of  one  of  the 
strongest  reform  Hindu  sects,  the  society  known  as 
the  Arya-Samaj  whose  battle  cry  is,  “Back  to  the 
Vedas!”  It  is  here  that  three  hundred  Indian 


136  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


youth  are  gathered  about  Indian  pundits  who  en- 
deavor to  reproduce  within  their  students’  minds 
and  acts  the  ancient,  and  in  these  modern  days,  the 
unworldly  and  ascetic  habits  and  practises  of  other 
Hindu  centuries. 

My  Mohammedan  servant  after  some  difficulty, 
found  an  ekka  which  is  the  nearest  approach  in  this 
part  of  the  world  to  a taxi-cab.  Attached  to  this 
vehicle  was  an  animal  which  never  would  be  mis- 
taken for  a horse  and  which  no  Western  cowboy 
would  call  a pony  or  no  Southern  cotton  planter 
would  recognize  as  a mule;  it  was  a nondescript  in 
the  animal  world,  a specimen  one  sees  only  in  India. 
This  particular  animal,  as  far  as  one  could  pre- 
sume, in  a previous  incarnation  was  of  a whitish 
color  and  in  that  far  off  period,  he  might  have  been 
either  a mule’s  colt  or  a false  alarm  jackass.  He 
was  not  far  from  the  size  of  a Harlem  goat  and  of 
about  the  same  thinness  and  discouraged  expres- 
sion. He  had  evidently  shrunk  since  his  rebirth 
into  his  present  day  existence,  for  his  harness  had 
been  looped  together,  tied  up  with  ropes  and  the 
thills  of  the  cart,  which  rose  up  a foot  or  two  above 
his  head,  as  we  arranged  ourselves  upon  the  front 
and  back  seats  of  this  sulky,  threatened  again  to 
elevate  his  donkeyship  into  the  realm  of  another 
transmigration. 

We  piled  our  luggage  upon  this  perilous  looking 
equipage  which  was  in  charge  of  a large  Punjabi 
driver,  while  my  servant  and  I climbed  on  top  of 
it,  feeling  a sense  of  shame  keen  beyond  anything 
that  possibly  could  envelope  the  frame  of  a Bowery 
or  East-End  koster  about  to  be  arrested  by  the 
‘Cruelty  to  Animals’  League.  Five  miles  through 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  137 


the  sand  and  desert  jungles,  with  four  fords  of  the 
Ganges  before  us,  under  the  blazing  sun  of  the  trop- 
ics and  with  no  larger,  stauncher  hope  between  us 
and  our  destination  than  this  scrawny  beast,  only 
a degree  bigger  than  a sheep!  My  feelings  were 
indeed,  charged  with  humility. 

After  we  had  once  left  the  confines  of  the  town, 
however,  I began  to  realize  that  it  was  not  wholly 
the  donkey  who  was  to  be  pitied.  The  passengers 
also  were  destined  to  share  in  the  hardships  of 
travel.  The  first  patch  of  rocks,  round  cobble 
heads  washed  smooth  by  previous  inundations  of 
the  river  and  left  absolutely  bare  of  earth  in  the 
road,  made  riding  in  this  springless  vehicle  a pen- 
ance. As  soon  as  we  were  able  to  stop  the  cara- 
vanserai, we  begged  to  walk,  and  the  donkey  re- 
lieved of  the  human  part  of  his  cargo,  jogged  along 
contentedly  with  the  luggage,  and  his  driver  chirp- 
ing at  his  side. 

As  I alighted  on  the  edge  of  the  Ganges  which 
was  now  at  low  tide,  I discovered  at  my  side  a huge 
Suttee  burial  ground;  the  place  was  marked  by 
scores  of  graves  of  Indian  women  who  had  chosen 
to  be  burned  and  buried  with  their  deceased  hus- 
bands on  the  shore  of  the  River  of  their  Religion. 
Although  it  is  commonly  reported  that  suttee  is 
seldom  found  to-day  among  Indian  women,  I saw 
repeatedly  in  the  rural  districts  especially,  traces 
of  this  practise  in  the  mothers  of  the  young  men  of 
this  generation.  It  was  common  to  hear  a young 
child  rebuked  for  lack  of  courage  by  an  older  brother 
or  sister  who  would  say,  “Are  you  not  ashamed, 
and  your  mother  a suttee  V’ 


138  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


I met  a young  man  coming  out  of  this  burial 
ground  who  spoke  to  me  in  English ; 

“You’re  going  to  Gurukul,”  he  said. 

“Yes,”  I replied,  “if  I can  get  there  with  this 
turnout.  ’ ’ 

“You  will  make  it,”  he  said,  “hut  it  is  a hard 
road  and  you  will  be  obliged  to  wade  through 
streams  and  pick  your  way  through  several  jun- 
gles. I have  never  been  there,”  he  continued, 
“though  I often  come  here  to  worship.  I have  just 
now  been  burying  my  brother  in  the  Ganges.  ’ ’ 

“Do  you  believe,”  I said,  “that  your  brother  will 
fare  better  in  the  next  world  for  being  buried  in 
this  river?” 

“Oh,  no,”  he  answered,  “it  means  nothing  to  me; 
I have  been  educated  in  the  Government  school  in 
Lahore,  but  my  father  believes  it  and  my  grand- 
mother is  buried  in  this  Suttee  burying  ground  and 
I must  follow  my  father’s  desires  to  keep  up  the 
old  rites.” 

The  attitude  of  this  youth  of  modernity  was  a 
fitting  native  reason  for  the  establishment  of  the 
institution  to  which  I was  now  journeying  and  which 
lay  isolated  beyond  the  distant  hills  far  from  the 
influence  of  the  Government  schools  and  even  far- 
ther away  from  that  collision  of  mind  which  is  now 
taking  place  in  India,  caught  as  she  is  between  the 
two  conflicting  currents  of  Occidental  and  Oriental 
civilization.  It  is  as  one  visits  the  rural  sections 
and  such  out-of-the-way  places  as  Gurukul  that  one 
is  reminded  that  the  East  is  still  East  and  that,  far 
below  the  superficial  adaptation  of  Indians  to  West- 
ern customs,  the  real  Oriental  is  unchanged. 

After  crossing  the  first  branch  of  the  river  which 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  139 


was  a slight  stream  with  a broad  fringe  of  stones 
on  either  side,  all  of  which  seemed  innocent  enough 
now  but  which  we  found  later  in  the  day  could  be 
converted  into  an  angry  flood  menacing  life  and 
bullock  carts, — we  found  ourselves  upon  a sandy 
track  with  a road  leading  into  a semi-forest  of 
stunted  trees  and  jungle  grass.  We  had  not  gone 
far  before  what  might  be  taken  by  Western  eyes  to 
be  a band  of  gipsies  was  discovered  by  the  road 
side.  These  were  jungle  folk  who  had  been  to  the 
Ganges  to  bathe  and  were  now  returning,  bearing 
many  miles  into  the  waste  places  of  this  desert  coun- 
try, the  sacred  water  of  “Mother  Ganges.” 

Large  brass  water  jars  hanging  at  the  ends  of 
poles,  were  carried  by  the  men  and  were  also  strung 
across  the  saddles  of  the  horses.  The  women,  who 
for  the  most  part,  bore  their  babies  on  their  hips, 
according  to  Indian  custom,  also  carried  small  water 
jars  on  their  heads.  This  motley  crowd  began  to 
push  about  us  gesticulating  and  talking  as  wildly  as 
only  excitable  Indians  can  gesture  and  talk.  The 
men  were  huge,  swarthy  and  shaggy,  their  bodies 
clothed  only  at  the  waist  by  a loin  cloth.  The 
women  wore  fiery  red  saris,  their  arms  and  legs 
heavy  with  golden  bracelets  and  the  toes  of  their 
bare  feet  set  off  from  each  other  by  numerous  rings. 

Some  of  them  also  wore  about  their  necks  gold 
ornaments  and  suggested  the  disposition  of  some  of 
that  forty  thousand  pounds  of  gold  coming  into  this 
part  of  India  each  year  but  which  can  never  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  Government.  In  India,  as  in 
Egypt,  the  coolie  and  the  farmer  feel  sure  of  the 
treasure  which  he  can  bury  or  convert  into  orna- 
ments for  their  women. 


140  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


I could  not  understand  the  meaning  of  their  ex- 
citement and  their  evident  request  of  us,  hut  my 
servant  who  understood  both  Hindi  and  Punjabi, 
said  that  they  had  mistaken  me  for  the  Police  In- 
spector Sahib,  and  were  telling  me  how  the  police- 
man in  a jungle  town  ahead  of  us  had  held  them  up 
for  twenty  rupees  before  he  would  allow  them  to 
pass.  He  capitulated,  however,  I learned,  in  true 
Oriental  fashion  by  accepting  two  rupees,  saying 
that  the  Government  required  this  of  them  and  that 
otherwise  a fearful  calamity  would  overtake  them 
on  their  way  home. 

Upon  assuring  them  that  in  a general  way  I sym- 
pathized with  them  in  this  outrage  upon  their 
meager  funds,  I further  assuaged  them  by  taking 
pictures  of  their  most  profusely  bedecked  women  and 
of  one  of  the  old  jungle  husbands. 

I soon  had  them  all  about  me,  young  and  old,  male 
and  female,  crying  for  backsheesh — for  India  is  a 
backsheesh  country  through  and  through.  I have 
not  yet  found  the  instance  of  an  Indian  below  the 
first  official  and  educated  grade  whose  palm  is  not 
greased  for  it.  It  was  only  through  the  vigor  of 
our  small  steed  who  had  renewed  his  strength 
through  some  fodder  his  owner  had  concealed  in  his 
ekka,  that  we  finally  left  behind  us  these  barbarous 
looking  people  with  their  simple  and  harmless  gar- 
rulity. 

The  journey  for  the  next  four  miles  was  full  of 
interest.  We  met  queer  looking  folk  attended  by 
scrawny  bullocks  carrying  sugar  cane ; a turn  in  the 
road  would  reveal,  through  the  high  jungle  brush, 
a break  in  the  hills  through  which  we  caught  the 
transporting  view  of  the  far  away  Himalayas,  white 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  141 


with  everlasting  snow.  We  crossed  pontoon  bridges 
covered  with  straw  which  bent  beneath  us  like  thin 
ice  and  at  the  end  of  which  we  invariably  met  a man 
calling  for  tribute. 

Just  before  the  buildings  of  the  Gurukula  arose 
in  the  distance,  we  arrived  at  a considerable  ford 
of  the  river.  Upon  the  bank  was  a band  of  pilgrims 
drying  their  clothing  after  their  moist  passage. 
The  rushing  stream,  unlike  the  last  one  we  had 
encountered,  was  unbridged.  Our  faithful  pony 
looked  at  it  suspiciously  and  commenced  to  turn 
around  with  a red,  dangerous  look  in  his  eye. 

There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  go  ahead  and, 
preparing  for  a ducking,  we  perched  ourselves  on 
top  of  the  luggage  and  with  the  driver  wading  and 
pushing  the  cart  and  donkey,  we  struggled  along 
with  many  perilous  lurches  which  threatened  to 
swamp  us  within  a few  rods  of  the  shore;  there  we 
stuck  fast  in  a big  hole  into  which  donkey,  cart,  oc- 
cupants, driver,  and  baggage  sank  together  in  wet 
confusion.  We  had  reached  our  highest  elevation 
on  the  cart.  My  servant  was  holding  our  bedding 
on  his  head  while  I was  on  my  knees  on  the  cart  seat 
trying  to  balance  myself  over  the  water  which  was 
now  flowing  through  and  over  the  vehicle,  holding 
aloft  my  suitcase. 

Just  as  the  stream  seemed  about  to  overwhelm  us, 
two  woodsmen  with  fierce  beards  and  big  sticks  ap- 
peared on  the  bank  and  plunging  into  the  stream 
took  bodily  the  donkey  and  cart  with  its  contents 
and  carried  and  pushed  us  to  a point  where  it  was 
easy  wading  to  the  shore.  It  was  my  first  bath  in 
Mother  Ganges  and  I fear  that  my  thoughts  were 
not  “ concentrated’ ’ in  preparation  for  the  same,  in 


142  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


that  religious  manner  recommended  by  the  Hindu 
religion. 

We  were  now  but  a few  hundred  yards  from  the 
school  and  we  were  met  by  a vanguard  of  a score  or 
more  of  Indian  students  dressed  flamboyantly  in 
saffron  colored  garments  and  crying  “Salaam! 
Salaam!” 

I was  soon  introduced  to  a condition  of  education 
which  certainly  was  unique.  Here  were  300  young 
Hindus,  spending  sixteen  years  of  their  life  in  a 
spot  covering  in  extent  800  acres  of  jungle  on  the 
shores  of  the  Ganges  River,  utterly  severed  from 
the  world  both  by  geography  and  customs.  Each 
youth  made  a vow  upon  entering,  of  celibacy  until 
he  was  twenty-five  years  of  age  and,  furthermore, 
agreed  not  to  visit  his  home  nor  to  associate  with 
the  world’s  folk  during  his  entire  training  which 
lasted  to  the  end  of  his  twenty-fifth  year.  This 
vow  of  celibacy  is  indeed  unusual  in  a country  where 
the  majority  of  the  students  of  high  school  age,  are 
married.  These  young  men  also  are  unlike  other 
Indian  students  as  regards  the  rigorous  discipline 
to  which  they  are  subjected.  They  go  without  hats, 
even  in  the  burning  Indian  sun,  they  discard  shoes, 
for  shoes  are  more  likely  to  crush  insects  in  walking 
than  are  the  bare  feet,  and  the  old  Vedas  are  strict 
in  relation  to  the  killing  of  animals.  These  stu- 
dents were  also  thorough-going  vegetarians,  eating 
with  their  fingers  only  Indian  cooked  food,  using 
no  condiments  whatever,  not  allowed  to  smoke  and 
obliged  to  sleep  upon  a hard,  board  bed  and  rising 
at  four  a.  m.,  to  engage  in  a multitude  of  prayers 
and  sacrificial  rites. 

The  training,  unlike  that  of  the  five  big  Govern- 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  143 


ment  institutions  of  India,  as  in  most  of  the  Indian 
native  colleges,  is  in  the  vernacular,  only  a very  lit- 
tle English  being  taught,  while  such  old  time  teaching 
in  relation  to  medicine  and  ancient  geography  as  ex- 
isted in  India  centuries  ago  is  followed.  Sanskrit 
is  the  chief  subject  of  study;  this  is  indeed  like  a 
perpetual  feast,  the  hope  being  that  the  old  idea  of 
Hindu  education  may  be  revived  and  that  this  type 
of  other-worldly  ideas  may  make  its  way  against 
the  strong  flood  of  new  education  from  the  West 
which  is  now  sweeping  through  India.  There  was 
hardly  a suspicion  of  the  type  of  education  known 
in  the  West.  The  chemical  laboratory  consisted  by 
count  of  three  test  tubes,  two  jars  and  a table,  none 
of  which  looked  as  though  they  had  been  used  by 
the  present  generation. 

The  students,  because  of  their  lack  of  knowledge 
of  English  as  well  as  on  account  of  their  deficiency 
of  modern  learning,  are  debarred  from  taking  the 
examinations  of  the  Government  universities  which 
now  form  the  surest  road  towards  official  positions. 
By  every  possible  means  these  young  men  are 
hedged  in  from  contact  with  the  world  of  to-day  and 
predestined  thereby  to  go  forth  as  blind  reactionists 
in  the  new  India,  missionaries,  not  of  present  day 
opportunity,  but  of  an  old  time  religious  order 
which  has  for  centuries  marked  a nation  peculiar 
for  its  spiritual  and  speculative  tendencies.  The 
drift  of  such  education  like  that  of  the  Mohammedan 
schools  of  Egypt  and  Hyderabad  is  toward  the  em- 
phasis of  things  Asiatic  and  dogmatic  in  religion  as 
against  things  European  and  progressive.  Between 
these  two  sets  of  forces  the  Oriental  of  to-day  must 
choose  and  upon  his  choice  much  depends  both  for 


144  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


liimself  as  an  individual  and  also  for  the  nation. 
That  Gurukul  stands  decidedly  for  Asia  and  an- 
tiquity is  made  evident  by  the  answer  of  the  Prin- 
cipal of  this  Institution  when  I asked  if  he  had 
visited  Europe: 

“No!”  said  he  decidedly,  “and  I never  wish  nor  intend 
to  visit  Europe.  Europe  and  the  West  are  diametrically 
opposed  to  my  theory  and  my  practice.  They  stand  for 
the  principle  which  I abhor  for  India,  namely,  the  prin- 
ciple of  life  by  material  standards  and  for  material  gain. 
European  religion  stands  for  competition,  the  Hindu  re- 
ligion for  co-operation.  The  West  emphasizes  things,  the 
East  believes  in  ideas.  Your  people  make  religion  a thing 
apart  from  your  practical  life ; we  believe  in  connecting  it 
with  every  phase  of  existence.  We  Hindus  of  this  school 
believe  that  India  is  to  be  saved  by  the  cry,  ‘Back  to  the 
Vedas!’  These  sacred  books  of  Hinduism  contain  all  that 
Indians  need  to  know  either  for  faith  or  practice.” 

This  statement  is  a brief  hint  of  the  policy  of  that 
reformed  sect,  the  Arya  Samaj,  which  is  now  work- 
ing so  devotedly  for  the  revival  of  ancient  Hindu 
literature  and  Hindu  religion. 

The  Vedas  which  form  the  body  of  belief  of  these 
people  are  four  in  number  and  are  called  by  the 
names  of  Rig,  Yajus,  Sama,  and  Alhurva.  To  study 
these  four  books  is  the  primal  object  of  the  Gurukul. 
In  these  treatises,  students  secure  methods  of 
prayers  to  God,  directions  for  daily  bathings,  study, 
and  worship;  the  universe  and  its  dissolution  is 
treated  as  is  the  soul  in  its  effort  to  raise  itself 
above  itself  by  means  of  many  incarnations  until 
it  merges  in  the  Great  God  for  aeons  together. 
The  central  idea  is  that  of  achieving  all  bliss  in  God 
by  means  of  endless  transmigrations. 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  145 


The  practical  working  out  of  these  doctrines  is 
most  interesting.  The  name  Guru  (teacher)  and 
Kul  (family),  means  literally  a family  of  teachers 
and  this  idea  is  followed  to  the  letter  at  this  jungle 
institution.  The  boys,  from  morning  till  night,  are 
in  charge  of  their  specifically  appointed  gurus,  who 
sleep  in  the  same  room  with  them,  take  long  tramps 
and  play  with  them  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  as- 
sist them  in  their  prayers  and  incense  burning  and 
offer  to  them  an  ever  present  intimacy  of  friendship 
not  unlike  that  which  Pestalozzi  advocated  in  Eu- 
rope in  his  revolutionary  methods  of  teaching  school- 
boys. These  teachers  live  on  an  amazingly  small 
fee  and  are  virtually  committed  to  the  brotherhood 
and  to  this  monastic  company  for  life. 

The  Gurukul  students  are  confronted  with  five 
daily  duties  which  are  as  follows : 

1.  Get  up  at  4 a.  m.  Bathe.  Say  prayers  or  per- 
form “Duty  to  God.”  This  is  “Bramha  Yagna.” 

2.  Incense  worship  (Agni-hoera).  This  incense 
purifies  the  air,  going  up  to  God  with  a sweet 
odor  and  also  signifies  going  out  to  the  world  with 
general  helpfulness. 

3.  Duty  toward  the  Elders  (Pitri  yegna).  This 
the  members  of  the  Arya-Samaj  affirm  is  being  lost 
sight  of  to-day.  It  is  the  old  Hindu  custom  of  not 
partaking  of  food  until  one  has  rendered  some  serv- 
ice or  duty  to  an  elder.  This  sometimes  consists  of 
giving  a piece  of  cloth  or  a small  gift  or  going  out 
to  the  borders  of  the  town  to  take  food  to  an  old 
person. 

4.  “ Vali-vaigh,”  or  feeding  animals  and  insects 
and  birds.  The  traditional  allowance  for  such  pur- 
pose is  a farthing  a day. 


146  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


5.  “Ata  the” — yeagna — “whose  date  of  coining 
is  not  fixed.”  These  duties  have  to  do  with  the 
welcoming,  the  feeding,  and  the  caring  for  the 
Sannyasis  or  the  learned  and  holy  man  when  he 
comes. 

However  unworldly  the  above  regulations  and 
rules  may  seem,  there  was  one  type  of  exercise  here 
at  Gurukul  that  impressed  me  with  familiarity ; that 
was  the  enthusiastic  practise  of  athletics.  These 
300  students  were  the  most  sturdy  youth  I met  in 
India.  Every  student  in  the  school  engaged  during  a 
certain  part  of  the  day  playing  football,  kicking  it 
with  their  bare  feet  and  darting  over  the  fields  with 
an  alertness  and  strength  which  one  seldom  sees 
equaled  anywhere  on  earth.  The  athletic  exercises, 
which  are  practised  with  regularity  here,  produce 
men  capable  of  great  endurance  and  severe  exertion. 

One  of  the  teachers  told  me  of  the  last  “march,” 
when  these  students  with  their  masters  in  fifteen 
days  tramped  northward  five  hundred  miles,  with  no 
shoes,  no  covering  for  the  head,  sleeping  out-of- 
doors  wherever  night  overtook  them  and  subsist- 
ing on  pulse,  grain  and  vegetables.  Such  regularity 
of  habits  and  exercise,  with  such  temperance  of  life, 
cannot  be  too  highly  commended. 

I found  moreover  a spirit  of  devoutness  that  im- 
pressed me  deeply.  Here  was  no  idle  street  corner 
praying,  no  specious  temple  or  Ganges  fakir  wor- 
ship, but  rather  earnestness  and  religious  zeal,  the 
zeal  almost  of  the  fanatic. 

Repeatedly  I watched  the  praying  circle  of  little 
hoys  around  their  guru,  two  boys  fed  the  fires  while 
each  one  of  the  students  at  a certain  time  in  the 
prayer  came  forward  and  put  on  the  flames  his  small 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  147 


contribution.  Then  with  closed  eyes,  with  bending 
bodies,  they  all  repeated  their  prayers  and  canticles. 

One  cannot  refrain  from  admiring  the  sense  of 
enthusiastic  devotion,  the  regularity  of  habitual  ex- 
ercises and  the  freedom  from  caste  prejudice,  for 
there  is  no  caste  here  at  Gurukul. 

That  which  the  Westerner  looks  for  in  vain,  how- 
ever, in  this  school  as  in  certain  other  institutions, 
is  the  training  that  fits  the  boys  to  do  one  thing 
well  in  after  life,  the  one  thing  appropriate  to  the 
needs  and  times  in  midst  of  which  this  Indian  youth 
is  to  spend  his  days.  In  India,  as  in  Europe,  Japan, 
or  Australia,  it  is  now  increasingly  necessary  for  a 
young  man  to  be  not  merely  good,  but  to  be  good 
for  something  particular,  and  definite.  A youth 
who  has  learned  to  be  regular  and  self-controlled  in 
his  school,  to  be  devoted  to  a high  principle,  to  learn 
how  to  live  comfortably  and  successfully  with  his 
superiors  and  equals,  has  learned  much;  but  this  is 
after  all  not  the  only  qualification  for  a successful 
education.  This  is  indeed,  in  a sense,  on  the  side 
when  one  is  judging  in  modern  times  of  the  output 
and  the  value  of  his  life. 

The  question  that  the  twentieth  century  puts  to 
the  young  Indian  is  a far  more  insistent  and  search- 
ing question  than  whether  he  can  go  without  a hat 
under  the  scorching  rays  of  the  Indian  sun;  it  is  a 
more  vital  and  sifting  question  even  than  whether 
he  is  devout  in  his  religious  exercises,  indispensable 
as  these  exercises  may  be  in  creating  character. 
The  question  is  whether  this  man,  thus  equipped,  is 
ready  to  take  his  place  in  the  arena  of  India’s  new 
battles  and  new  service,  whether  he  can  match  his 
powers  with  some  great  mission  of  helpfulness  to 


148  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


his  day  and  generation,  not  becoming  a parasite 
and  a traveling  religious  mendicant,  but  a living 
creative  force,  supporting  meanwhile  bis  own  ex- 
istence with  honor  and  adding  material,  intellectual, 
and  social  force  to  the  wealth  of  his  nation. 

The  first  and  ever  necessary  kind  of  training  of 
youth,  in  the  upbuilding  in  character,  is  successfully 
emphasized  at  Gurukul.  The  second  and  quite  as 
essential  matter,  the  preparation  for  using  these 
qualities  in  a life  work  that  is  truly  worth  while,  is 
almost  utterly  neglected. 

I could  only  ask  and  wonder  what  these  strong 
and  vigorous  young  men  were  to  do  when  they  got 
out  of  school  and  confronted  the  world  which  would 
seem  strange  enough  to  their  isolated  eyes.  It  was 
not  that  these  men,  because  of  their  disqualification 
in  English,  would  be  unable  to  secure  Government 
positions,  since  already  these  positions  are  more 
than  filled.  It  was  more  especially  because  the  new 
India  calls  for  men  of  self  reliance  and  constructive 
ability  in  her  great  industrial  and  technical  awaken- 
ing. . 

With  this  strong  utilitarian  current  running 
through  India,  one  naturally  asks  what  chance  the 
Gurukul  student  or  the  young  man  trained  only  in 
traditional  Hinduism  will  have  as  he  cries  to  his 
countrymen,  “We  must  go  back  to  the  Vedas!” 
Even  though  the  reformed  sects  of  Hinduism  could 
establish  dozens  of  such  schools  as  the  Gurukul,  they 
would  be  powerless  to  stem  the  tide  of  modernity 
which  is  sweeping  through  the  Orient  to-day  and 
securing  its  followers  not  only  out  of  India  hut  also 
from  the  sons  of  Japan,  Egypt  and  Africa. 

This  utilitarian,  economic  gospel  of  both  the  West 


THROUGH  AN  INDIAN  JUNGLE  149 


and  East  may  well  be  baited  at  times  that  we  may  in- 
quire whither  it  is  tending  or  if  its  means  have  en- 
gulfed its  ends,  but  to  check  it  or  to  turn  it  back 
would  be  almost  as  difficult  in  India  as  in  America 
to-day.  India  needs  not  obstructionists  and  ob- 
scurantists but  leaders.  Her  times  call  not  for 
speculation  but  for  service,  for  the  active  powers 
of  finely  balanced  men,  men  who  can  answer  their 
own  prayers  by  far  reaching  humanitarian  exercises, 
proving  their  faith  by  their  works. 

If  Gurukul  had  shown  me  the  last  five  years  of 
its  student  life  given  over  to  fitting  its  youth  to 
some  practical  and  useful  calling  in  order  that  grad- 
uation would  mean  a real  commencement  of  useful 
activity  either  in  letters,  industry,  or  science,  I 
should  have  been  encouraged ; because  I did  not  find 
such  inclination  I cannot  but  fear  that  this  institu- 
tion, together  with  all  those  bodies  of  men  which 
more  or  less  naturally  are  holding  on  to  the  old 
regime  in  India  to-day,  must  either  rearrange  their 
schedules  and  attach  their  moral  principles  to  mod- 
em life  or  be  swept  away  with  the  time  flood. 

India  is  in  sore  need  of  the  moral  and  physical 
forces  which  this  jungle  institution  advocates.  She 
has  already  enough  and  to  spare  of  unworldly,  mean- 
ingless and  speculative  symbolism  in  religion.  Let 
institutions  like  Gurukul  add  to  their  religion,  utility, 
and  let  the  new  technical  schools  unite  their  modern 
science  with  the  religious  devoutness  which  these 
earnest  but  misguided  Hindu  institutions  afford,  and 
the  result  must  surely  be  men  of  light  and  leading; 
pioneers  who  will  “go  up  and  occupy”  in  those 
fresh  modern  enterprises  that  now  mark  India’s 
awakening. 


XI 


Student  Life  in  India 


HE  Royal  road  to  learning  is  by  no  means  easy 


for  the  young  Indian.  The  Indian  student  is  a 
reflection  of  the  man  of  India,  and  probably  no  man 
of  any  nation  is  beset  with  so  many  and  such  di- 
verse problems  as  the  inhabitant  of  this  continent. 

The  Indian  youth  is  first  of  all  handicapped  in 
being  obliged  to  secure  his  education  in  a foreign 
language,  for  in  the  higher  grades  of  training,  like 
the  preparatory  schools  and  the  five  large  examining 
Universities  of  the  country,  the  lectures  and  text- 
books are  almost  exclusively  in  English.  The  im- 
pression that  was  most  prominent  on  my  former 
visit  to  India  was  that  virtually  every  young  man  in 
my  audiences  understood  English  and  that  some  of 
these  students  had  been  working  in  English  for  eight 
and  ten  years. 

English,  in  point  of  fact,  is  becoming  the  lingua 
Franca,  the  true  Esperanto  of  a nation  where  more 
than  150  different  dialects  are  spoken  and  where 
there  can  be  no  means  of  intercourse  between  dif- 
ferent sections  without  some  commonly  understood 
tongue.  The  eager  ambition  which  one  finds  every- 
where to  learn  English  is  not  common  to  India  alone ; 
it  is  seen  throughout  the  entire  Orient.  I even 
found  English  being  taught  in  the  Bilibid  prison  in 
Manila  where  1,700  prisoners  go  to  school  to  Eng- 
lish daily.  English  brings  to  young  Indians,  as  to 


150 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA 


151 


all  Orientals,  opportunities  for  cosmopolitan  service 
in  Government  and  commercial  positions.  It  is  the 
hall  mark  of  culture  and  progressiveness  in  every 
Oriental  community. 

The  student  of  India  has  also  inherited  a system 
tending  to  destroy  individuality.  For  three  thou- 
sand years  the  words  of  Tennyson  have  been  true 
in  India. 

The  individual  withers,  and  the  world  is  more 
and  more. 

Orientalism  in  theory  and  practise  has  tended  to 
suppress  personal  possibilities  in  favor  of  despotic 
rulership  and  patriarchal  family  systems.  India 
has  been  ridden  with  collectivism,  both  in  family 
and  in  state.  The  present  Indian  student  is  an  in- 
heritor of  a slavery  to  social  and  ancestral  systems 
whose  first  tendency  is  to  deindividualize  him  and 
to  make  him  a mere  cog  in  a great  social  wheel. 
This  emphasis  upon  conformity  of  type  has  produced 
a fixity  and  conservatism  which  differentiates  the 
Indian  student  from  the  Westerner  in  a most  em- 
phatic way.  It  is  one  of  the  most  impregnable  walls 
through  which  the  civilization  of  Europe  has  had  to 
penetrate.  India  has  gloried  in  her  exclusiveness 
and  in  her  annihilation  of  public  spirit,  in  her  al- 
legiance, without  change  of  jot  or  tittle,  to  the  laws 
of  the  fathers,  defying  all  sudden  transformation. 
New  India  has  inherited  a traditional  conservatism 
well  expressed  by  William  Watson: 

The  brooding  mother  of  the  unfilial  world 
Recumbent  on  her  own  antiquity, 

Aloof  from  our  mutation  and  unrest 
Alien  to  our  achievements  and  desires, 


152  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Too  proud  alike  for  protest  or  assent 

When  new  thoughts  thunder  at  her  mossy  door; 

Another  heart  recalling  other  loves, 

Too  gray  and  grave  for  our  adventurous  hopes, 

For  our  precipitate  pleasures  too  august; 

And  in  majestic  taciturnity, 

Refraining  her  illimitable  scorn. 

Whether  one  inquires  of  teachers,  officials,  busi- 
nessmen or  missionaries  as  to  the  characteristic  of 
the  Indian,  before  one  is  through  with  the  conver- 
sation, he  will  inevitably  hear  the  phrase,  “the  lack 
of  initiative.”  The  Indian  student  has  never  been 
taught  origination  and  the  powers  of  creative  re- 
sources. Whether  this  deficiency  is  due  to  the  age 
long  servitude  of  the  race,  which  has  naturally  in- 
volved the  dwarfing  of  initiative  and  compelled 
services  other  than  those  self-assertive  and  reliant 
characteristics  of  a ruling  and  accomplishing  people, 
or  to  the  fact  that  the  ruling  race  has  taken  for 
granted  this  natural  inaptitude  to  active  individual- 
ity and  has  not  tried  to  develop  it,  may  be  an  open 
question.  It  is  everywhere  evident,  however,  that 
India  has  not  been  prolific  in  great  leadership  which 
is  another  word  for  great  individuality.  Even  a 
few  great  men  during  almost  any  age  of  her  exist- 
ence, even  one  great  national  personality,  a Crom- 
well or  a John  Knox  in  spirit  and  fire,  to  “see  life 
steadily  and  to  see  it  whole”  and  then,  with  practical 
aggressiveness  to  lead  this  315,000,000  host  towards 
unity  and  progressive  development — even  one  such 
man  would  be  notable  by  his  uniqueness  in  Indian 
history. 

I predict,  however,  that  the  new  day  which  is 
dawning  in  India  will  see,  among  other  things,  the 


Field  day  at  a Christian  college  in  Singapore 


An  Indian  hill-man 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA 


153 


rise  of  men  of  independent  qualities  of  judgment 
and  action.  In  other  words,  I believe  that  the  In- 
dian is  capable  of  being  trained  in  the  modes  of 
action  as  well  as  in  the  modes  of  thought  of  the 
West.  I have  found  in  the  native  states  as  well  as 
in  certain  parts  of  British  India  where  the  burden 
of  legislative,  commercial,  and  educational  responsi- 
bility has  been  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of  Indians, 
a new  dignity  of  purpose,  not  only  a higher  self- 
respect  but  certain  powers  of  command  and  deter- 
mination resembling  the  traits  which  have  made  the 
British  Baj  rather  than  the  Hindu  Maharajah  su- 
preme in  the  Indian  peninsula.  Such  exercises  as 
those  connected  with  modern  commerce  and  athlet- 
ics, original  investigation  in  laboratory  and  field, 
where  imitation,  or  examinations  are  virtually  ex- 
cluded, are  slowly  bringing  out  a new  individualism. 
The  next  generation  is  rich  in  promise  in  those  traits 
which  make  a nation  great  and  free  through  the 
leadership  of  “mountainous  men.” 

In  India,  as  in  Egypt,  education  leans  towards 
economics. 

Professor  Ilenri  Bergson,  the  distinguished  French 
philosopher,  speaking  in  the  assembly  hall  in  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  what  he  felicitously  styled  the  “Interna- 
tional Mind,”  epitomized  education  as  included  in  a 
two-fold  function : to  teach  fact  and  to  train  the  in- 
telligence, the  latter  being  really  its  most  important 
work.  The  acquisition  of  facts,  so  often  regarded 
as  the  exclusive  occupation  of  research  in  the  Uni- 
versity or  in  the  realm  of  higher  education,  is  really 
for  the  purpose  of  exercising  and  developing  the 
intelligence.  He  continued  by  developing  the 


154  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


thought  that  the  greatest  products  of  intelligence 
are  judgment  and  good  sense ; that  through  the  pow- 
ers of  judgment  and  good  sense  or,  what  he  styled 
practical  idealism,  the  great  individual  and  the  great 
state  resulted. 

Whatever  may  have  been  in  the  minds  of  the 
teachers  of  India  youth,  as  far  as  one  can  observe, 
this  great  object  of  educational  training  has  never 
permeated  deeply  the  Indian  student’s  conscious- 
ness. He  is  an  apostle  of  pure  theory  and  becomes 
practical  and  filled  with  common  sense  judgment 
only  in  so  far  as  he  judges  his  theory  to  be  cashable 
in  rupees.  He  is  out  primarily  for  the  education  that 
pays.  He  is  seldom  lost  in  the  absorbing  sea  of  his 
own  specialism.  Among  the  hundreds  of  students, 
and  Indian  teachers  as  well,  with  whom  I have  talked 
relative  to  this  matter,  I have  found  but  a saving 
remnant  who  would  not  quite  willingly  leave  their 
present  work,  whatever  it  might  be,  for  the  sake  of 
a position  carrying  a higher  salary,  especially  when 
that  position  brought  with  it  not  only  dollars  but 
dignity  of  some  official  kind. 

The  reason  for  this  submergence  of  Indian  stu- 
dents in  purely  utilitarian  objective  is  apparent. 
The  Indian  student  above  all  his  kind  is  poor  in 
purse.  With  the  exception  of  certain  sons  of  mod- 
ern rich  men  or  of  ancient  patriarchal  families,  the 
student  of  India  must  work  for  his  bread  and  he 
must  depend,  in  the  new  competition  imported  from 
the  West,  upon  his  position  at  graduation  for  his 
livelihood.  The  man  who  receives  honors  or  high 
marks  at  examination  time  is  the  one  who  is  chosen 
for  the  most  lucrative  positions  in  a government 
office,  and  if  business  opportunities  are  open,  it  is 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA 


155 


this  man  with  a high  grade  certificate  in  his  hand 
who  is  chosen. 

Furthermore  his  place  in  marriage  and  social  life 
is  decidedly  dependent  upon  the  stamp  which  his 
examinations  leave  upon  him.  For  example,  a 
graduate  of  the  preparatory  or  secondary  school 
who,  upon  graduation,  holds  a good  certificate  can 
command  from  his  prospective  wife’s  father  a larger 
dowry  than  could  be  forthcoming  for  the  uncertif- 
icated youth.  So  definite  is  this  matter,  economic- 
ally speaking,  that  in  a certain  part  of  India,  the 
teachers  inform  me  that  a regular  scale  of  dowries 
is  in  vogue:  Five  hundred  rupees  exacted  from 
the  prospective  father  for  a secondary  school  cer- 
tificate husband;  a thousand  rupees  for  a first  class 
B.A.,  with  a thousand  to  two  thousand  rupees  de- 
manded by  the  youth  who  flaunts  before  the 
eyes  of  a would-be  bride  an  academic  M.A.  Ver- 
itably the  Indian  student  graduates  as  a marriage- 
able commodity  for  the  highest  bidder. 

It  is  not  only  the  matrimonial  obligation  which 
affects  scholarship  in  India.  The  patriarchal  cus- 
tom, of  the  head  of  the  family  being  responsible 
for  the  various  relatives,  as  far  as  their  support  is 
concerned,  is  also  a matter  that  must  be  considered 
seriously  by  the  young  man  who  keeps  his  eye  upon 
his  study  and  his  tests  for  the  sake  of  their  economic 
value.  It  is  not  unusual  for  a student,  even  in  his 
first  years  after  college,  to  find  himself  saddled  with 
the  enormous  burdens  of  a large  circle  of  relations 
who  are  frequently  wholly  or  in  part  dependent  upon 
his  efforts. 

A bright  Indian  boy  came  to  me  with  the  follow- 
ing story  of  the  practical  condition  which  he  was 


156  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


facing.  “I  am  obliged  to  leave  school,”  he  said 
with  real  sorrow  in  his  voice.  “Why,”  I said, 
“should  you  think  of  such  a thing?  You  are  one  of 
the  best  men  in  your  class  your  instructor  tells  me. 
You  will  be  able  to  graduate  and,  if  you  desire,  to 
pursue  some  specialty  which  will  enable  you  to  be- 
come eventually  a national  leader  amongst  your  peo- 
ple. The  Government  will  assist  you  in  study 
abroad  to  complete  your  education  along  the  lines 
of  your  choice.”  This  was  the  young  man’s  reply. 
“I  know  this  and  I have  the  greatest  desire  to  con- 
tinue, but  I have  not  only  my  own  wife  to  support, 
but  at  the  death  of  my  father  last  year  I was  left 
with  my  widowed  mother,  two  younger  brothers, 
two  widowed  aunts  and  one  of  my  aunt’s  children 
dependent  upon  me.  I have  just  been  offered  a po- 
sition with  a salary  of  fifty  rupees  a month  and  if 
I am  fortunate,”  and  here  he  laughed  cynically,  “I 
may  be  getting  one  hundred  rupees  a month  at  the 
end  of  twenty-five  years’  work,  but  there  is  nothing 
better  ahead  of  me.  Meanwhile  they  must  eat.” 
This  is  a fitting  sample  of  at  least  one  of  the  ways 
in  which  an  ancient  patriarchal  system  fails  to  work 
in  the  twentieth  century. 

When  we  consider  furthermore  that  even  when 
such  obligations  as  these  do  not  exist,  that  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten  the  son  inherits  the  debts  of  the 
father,  debts  made  to  satisfy  the  foolish  and  insane 
customs  of  mortgaging  one’s  future  for  the  sake  of  a 
great  parade  at  the  time  of  the  marriage,  funeral,  or 
religious  event,  and  that  he  is  just  now  coming  into 
a period  when  prices  for  living  have  increased  two- 
fold over  that  known  to  his  father,  we  may  be  in- 
creasingly sympathetic  with  the  single  eye  which 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA  157 

the  Indian  student  turns  upon  his  economic  fu- 
ture. 

Indian  boys  and  girls  are  fond  of  making  water 
pictures.  Fine  dust  is  sprinkled  upon  the  surface 
of  the  water  in  which  figures  are  lightly  traced,  but 
a slight  stirring  of  the  water  jar  blurs  or  destroys 
the  picture — symbol  of  the  change  and  instability 
which  the  foreigner  seems  to  find  in  the  entire  In- 
dian character.  Unlike  the  Western  student,  accus- 
tomed frequently  from  his  earliest  years  to  bear 
responsibility  and  to  make  his  way,  the  Indian  col- 
legian’s life  has  been  enervated  by  a climate  which 
can  only  be  appreciated  by  those  who  have  tried  to 
work  and  carry  heavy  loads  in  the  Orient,  and  whose 
earlier  years  have  been  surrounded  with  conditions 
which  would  seem  perfectly  fitted  to  bring  about  a 
nerveless  and  indolent  future. 

Try  to  imagine  the  home  from  which  so  many  of 
these  students  come.  A place  hardly  worthy,  from 
our  Western  point  of  view,  of  such  dignified  appel- 
lation. It  is  not  the  home  of  the  large  Indian  cities, 
it  is  quite  as  often  the  secluded  mud  hut  in  some  far 
away  Indian  hamlet. 

‘ ‘ The  paths  lead  across  the  level  unfenced  fields  which  roll 
away  in  miles  of  green,  unbroken  save  where  a clump  of 
trees  every  half-mile  or  so  mark  a village  beneath.  Here 
in  these  village  centres,  the  life  of  India  or  ninety  per  cent, 
of  its  population  or  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  people  of  the 
globe,  live  together  in  these  half  million  of  villages.  Be- 
neath a cluster  of  palms  or  banyans  are  a hundred  huts, 
huddled  together  for  mutual  protection  and  help;  for  a 
house — a floor  of  earth  ten  feet  square;  four  walls  of  mud 
a foot  thick;  a roof  of  hay  or  palm  leaves;  a low  door  for 
light ; without  window  or  chimney,  table  or  chair — this  one 


158  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


room  is  the  home  of  a family  of  five  or  ten.  Fields  sur- 
rounding the  village  give  them  food,  the  trees  above  furnish 
their  houses,  while  the  little  shrine  or  temple  without  the 
village  is  their  religious  center,  and  Chutterham  (rest 
house)  or  market  place  in  the  midst  of  the  village  is  the 
social  meeting  place.  For  dignitaries,  there  is  the  ‘head 
man,’  the  writer  or  school  master  and  the  astrologer. 
Cases  of  dispute  are  settled  by  ‘panchayat’  or  unofficial 
jury  of  five.  Thus  the  village,  like  a miniature  republic, 
is  isolated  and  self-sufficient,  as  ignorant  of  all  the  world 
as  it  in  turn  by  the  world  is  ignored,  unknown.  The  sun 
marks  the  time  of  its  uneventful,  lazy  hours,  as  the  chil- 
dren play  and  the  dogs  sleep  in  the  sun.  ’ ’ 

Out  of  such  sequestered  isolation,  removed  from 
the  great  tides  of  the  world’s  life,  come  increasingly 
large  numbers  of  Indian  students,  too  poor  in  purse 
to  travel,  knowing  nothing  in  their  early  training 
beyond  the  simple,  rude  and  superstitious  joys  and 
experiences  of  the  Indian  peasant,  with  little  prac- 
tical or  industrial  bent,  deprived  of  the  necessity  of 
working  for  a living  in  a land  where  four  rupees 
per  month  support  the  average  Indian ; his  govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  a foreigner,  he  tights  a climate 
in  which  success  must  be  attained  if  at  all  in  the  early 
morning  hours  [the  Indian  day  excluding  activity 
during  at  least  five  hours  of  the  Western  working 
day],  bound  into  a social  tyranny  of  caste  that  curbs 
and  kills  his  expansive  and  grooving  tendencies  to- 
wards social  betterment,  with  little  or  no  interming- 
ling with  his  fellow’s ; is  it  strange  that  one  finds  the 
Indian  collegian  within  his  new  and  strange  environ- 
ment, the  English  ruled  University,  an  immature 
schoolboy,  undeveloped  in  experience,  at  graduation 
hardly  advanced  beyond  the  stage  of  the  prepara- 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA 


159 


tory  school  lad  of  the  West?  Is  it  strange  that  this 
son  of  the  Tropics  is  found  to  be  a creature  of  his 
emotions,  imitative,  romantic,  idealistic,  lovable, 
sensitive,  unreasonable,  often  unbalanced,  a ready 
prey  to  inflammable  influences,  unsteady  and  fan 
less  competent  than  his  Western  counterpart  to  en- 
dure the  stress  and  strain  of  the  world’s  burden? 

In  view  of  his  handicaps,  therefore,  I consider 
the  Indian  student  a marvelous  phenomenon.  He 
works  far  more  indefatigably  and  sedulously  than 
the  Western  students  with  whom  I have  been  priv- 
ileged to  come  into  contact.  He  has  little  patience 
with  an  instructor  who  does  not  appear  to  him  to  be 
able  to  give  him  the  kind  of  training  most  suitable 
to  his  desired  vocation.  He  spends  far  less  time  than 
does  the  European  student  in  the  social  and  athletic 
dissipations  of  modern  school  life.  Deprived  of  the 
mitigating  and  safe  guarding  environment  of  college 
hostels  and  boarding  houses,  hundreds  of  Indian  stu- 
dents are  retaining  their  moral  self-respect  under 
conditions  that  would  place  the  severest  strain  upon 
the  less  serious  minded  young  men  of  our  Western 
cities  and  towns.  The  seclusion  of  women  in  India 
furthermore  makes  intercourse  with  respectable 
women  almost  impossible  to  the  young  Indian.  In 
fact,  his  very  concentration  is  one  of  his  strongest 
safeguards,  as  a worker  among  students  in  the  city 
of  Madras  said  to  me:  “I  can  not  conceive  what 

would  become  of  the  Indian  student  if  he  was  not 
such  an  incessant  worker.  ’ ’ 

Unstable,  lacking  in  far-sighted  initiative  and 
often  devoid  of  great  resourcefulness,  they  may  be, 
taken  as  a whole,  hut  in  the  next  generation  these 
men  will  have  a far  different  account  to  give  of 


160  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


themselves.  Such  habits  of  persevering  industry, 
especially  when  many  of  the  influences  I have  just 
narrated  have  been  largely  obliterated,  will  have 
their  reward  in  a new  type  whose  outstanding  char- 
acteristics will  not  be  described  in  terms  derogatory 
to  these  scions  of  the  Orient. 

If  the  tendency  educational  has  been  turned 
for  a quarter  of  a century  in  the  wrong  direction, 
the  present  drift  is  correctly  pointed.  It  is  two- 
fold in  its  present  direction.  Fundamentally  it  is 
toward  the  building  anew  of  a substructure  for  fu- 
ture India.  Primary,  Industrial,  and  Agricultural 
education  are  now  taking  the  place  of  that  senseless 
routine  which  for  so  many  years  did  nothing  more 
enlightened  than  to  turn  out  Government  clerks  with 
the  B.A.  degree  attached  to  their  names. 

I attended  a large  “party,”  so-called,  in  Bengal. 
Three  hundred  members  and  relatives  of  the  same 
family  were  present.  It  was  the  occasion  of  the  re- 
joicing over  the  birthday  of  a grandchild.  All  sorts 
of  Eastern  festivities  were  in  progress,  and  the  host, 
who  was  a wealthy  man,  was  keeping  open  house  in 
a manner  of  lavish  hospitality  known  only  in  the 
Orient.  I was  introduced  to  a young  Brahmin  who, 
I found,  was  a graduate  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 
He  had  gone  to  America  to  study  agriculture.  His 
father  owned  2,000  acres  of  land  in  Bengal  and  the 
son,  now  returning  with  his  Western  methods  of 
farming,  was  introducing  them  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible among  his  cultivators.  He  had  an  experiment 
farm  where  he  was  growing  various  grades  of  jute, 
rice,  and  cotton.  He  had  built  a farm  laboratory 
where  he  was  exhibiting  modern  implements  of  agri- 
culture— different  seeds  and  grains,  with  fruit  grown 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA 


161 


under  favorable  circumstances.  He  was  also  ex- 
perimenting with  soil,  with  garden  produce  and  had 
made  some  interesting  experiments  in  stock  raising. 

“The  old  Indian  ryots,”  he  said,  “gather  about 
my  laboratory  at  night  and  examine  with  intense  in- 
terest these  ‘modern  side’  improvements.  My 
side  hill  plow,”  he  said,  “occupied  their  attention 
in  all  their  spare  time  for  over  a month.  Most  of 
my  farmers  had  never  used  anything  but  a crooked 
stick  for  a plow  and  of  course  had  experienced 
great  difficulty  in  cultivating  the  hill  sections  of  our 
estates.”  These  farmers,  the  young  man  told  me, 
were  suspicious  in  the  extreme  of  modern  imple- 
ments and  methods,  usually  saying  in  the  course  of 
the  conversation  “this  was  good  enough  for  my 
father,  and  it  should  be  good  enough  for  me,”  but 
in  spite  of  their  incredulity,  the  results  were  too 
strong  for  them  and  the  young  agriculturist  was 
finding  a slow  but  certain  change  in  the  attitude  of 
his  cultivators.  He  said  significantly,  “In  five  years 
I shall  be  able  to  treble  the  output  of  our  family 
estates.” 

One  has  only  to  remind  himself  of  the  fact  that 
India  in  ninety  per  cent,  of  its  population  at  least 
is  agricultural,  and  that  India  must  depend  pri- 
marily for  the  future  as  well  as  the  present  upon 
the  land,  to  appreciate  the  outreach  of  such  student 
innovators  and  pioneers  as  this  young  man,  whom 
I met  by  chance  among  his  numerous  relatives  in 
the  city  of  Calcutta. 

Throughout  the  various  parts  of  the  country  I 
found  beginnings  in  agriculture  among  India ’s  com- 
ing men.  I only  wondered  that  this  vital  and  all 
important  subject,  so  indispensable  to  Indians,  was 


162  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


not  placed  at  the  very  front  of  educational  propa- 
ganda and  reform.  The  English  government  only 
recently  awakened  to  the  fact  that  many  of  its  agri- 
cultural colleges  were  merely  theoretical  schools 
turning  out  B.A.’s  for  government  positions  like 
other  institutions.  In  Egypt  and  in  the  Philippines, 
I find  far  more  general  and  thorough  attention  be- 
ing given  to  this  fundamental  branch  of  training. 
One  cannot  help  hut  wish  that  every  state  and  prov- 
ince, if  not  every  large  community,  could  have 
schools  similar  to  the  one  at  Poona  conducted  by 
Dr.  H.  H.  Mann,  and  also  the  sympathetic  and  prac- 
tical devotion  with  which  this  Scotchman  is  bringing 
practical  education  directly  to  bear  upon  India’s 
agricultural  problems.  I found  this  president  of  a 
college  numbering  500  students  sufficiently  devoted 
to  his  work  to  spend  his  vacations  and  in  fact  as 
many  of  his  week  days  as  he  could  secure  from  his 
regular  administrative  and  teaching  duties,  in  jour- 
neys to  the  country,  talking  with  the  farmer  vil- 
lagers, walking  over  their  lands,  investigating  their 
needs  and  securing  their  narrow  point  of  view;  and 
he  did  this  not  to  criticize  their  prejudices  but  to 
discover  means  by  which  he  might  awaken  them  to 
such  measures  as  co-operative  efforts  in  irrigation, 
uniting  them  for  the  benefit  of  better  implements 
and  the  moving  of  their  crops  to  market,  which 
problem  is  in  India  one  of  the  most  difficult  awaiting 
the  solution  of  agriculturists. 

In  one  native  state  also,  I found  that  the  Mahara- 
jah was  sending  through  Western  nations  two  offi- 
cers of  his  government  who  were  more  or  less 
expert  in  agricultural  matters,  especially  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  enthusiasm  and  knowledge  rel- 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  INDIA 


163 


ative  to  Western  farming  and  mechanical  industries 
connected  therewith.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  state 
to  keep  at  least  two  men  in  the  field  for  such  study 
during  the  coming  five  years.  Upon  returning  after 
extended  visits,  they  travel  through  the  agricul- 
tural sections  with  their  fresh  inspiration,  carrying 
with  them  the  samples  of  machinery  and  introduc- 
ing devices  for  aggregate  farming  into  parts  of  the 
country  where  for  thousands  of  years,  hand  labor 
has  been  the  only  manner  of  enticing  the  products 
from  the  soil. 

In  such  agricultural  undertakings  one  can  discern 
the  hope  of  the  coming  Indian  led  by  the  Indian  stu- 
dent, intelligent,  kindly,  increasingly  practical,  and 
eager,  to  copy  the  models  of  the  West.  As  an  agri- 
cultural devotee,  the  Indian  student  is  not  yet  gener- 
ally characterized,  but  there  are  enough  of  these  new 
apostles  of  labor  to  point  the  possibility,  to  turn 
thither  government  appropriations  and  to  encour- 
age all  lovers  of  this  land  of  sun  and  soil  to  believe 
in  a new  and  greater  country. 


XII 


Indian  Industky  and  Economics 

THE  problem  of  the  modem  Indian,  like  the  prob- 
lem of  the  modern  Chinese,  is  to  secure  ma- 
terial and  industrial  supply  commensurate  with  the 
ever-expanding  population.  The  population  of  In- 
dia is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  250,000  a month  in 
the  agricultural  sections  with  approximately  the 
same  cultivatable  area  and  yield  per  acre  as  existed 
fifty  years  ago.  At  present  the  progress  in  land 
cultivation  is  not  keeping  pace  with  the  progress  in 
population  nor  is  the  yield  per  acre.  Reasons  for 
this  failure  lie  partially  in  the  fact  that  the  manure 
of  the  country  is  utilized  necessarily  for  fuel  and 
not  for  fertilizing,  while  century-old  methods  of 
agriculture  are  still  in  use.  It  is  impossible 
for  the  people  to  secure  fertilizing  for  the 
land  because  of  its  expense,  while  the  cattle  and  bul- 
locks are  quite  incapable  of  dragging  the  heavy 
plows  and  machinery  of  the  West.  The  landowners 
also,  while  slow  to  accept  Western  methods  and  mod- 
ern machinery,  are  justified  in  their  attitude,  since 
it  would  be  quite  impossible  for  them  to  use  upon 
their  diminutive  farms,  implements  and  steam  power 
intended  for  large  areas ; even  if  cooperative  farm- 
ing could  be  introduced  the  difficulty  and  expense 
of  repairing  the  complicated  Western  machinery 
would  prevent  its  rapid  introduction. 

The  industrial  problem  becomes,  therefore,  the 

164 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  165 


people’s  problem  in  India,  since  less  than  fifteen  per 
cent,  of  India’s  population  is  non-agricultural. 
Much  depends  upon  the  solution  of  the  land  prob- 
lems, since  to  their  right  solution  India  must  look 
for  the  alleviation  of  the  present  high  cost  of  living, 
and  also  for  the  development  of  resources  by  which 
India  may  be  able  to  successfully  withstand  the 
strong  tide  of  Western  progress  bringing,  amongst 
other  things,  the  factory  systems  and  the  mechanical 
devices  of  the  Occident,  which  must  necessarily  dis- 
place the  handwork  and  indigenous  craft  of  this  an- 
cient population. 

There  is  probably  no  race  that  has  been  more  suc- 
cessful than  the  Indian  in  raising  himself  above  the 
clanging  voices  of  desire  or  in  stripping  away  from 
his  progress  the  impedimenta  of  material  luxury. 
Hence  the  Indian  is  poor  in  purse.  This  is  one  of 
the  first  impressions  one  receives  in  this  land  of 
complex  and  diverse  conditions. 

The  minimum  rate  of  wages  for  the  laboring  man 
in  India  is  the  lowest  in  the  world.  It  is  almost  in- 
credible to  think  of  millions  of  Indians  living  upon 
four  annas  or  eight  cents  a day,  while  in  certain  of 
the  rural  sections,  whole  families  are  reared  upon 
two  shillings,  or  fifty  cents  a week.  Economists  tell 
us  that  there  are  a hundred  million  more  people  in 
India  than  could  subsist  upon  like  wages  in  any 
other  part  of  the  world. 

But  the  Indian  comes  near  to  being  the  most  ma- 
terially independent  of  human  beings.  He  con- 
structs and  repairs  his  own  earthen  hut  which  is 
usually  composed  of  a single  room  and  a mud  floor, 
and  he  usually  pays  no  rent  for  the  same.  His 
clothing  is  chiefly  the  Indian  sun  by  day  and  a rough 


166  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


blanket  by  night  comprises  his  highest  necessity, 
while  his  children  must  be  content  with  a loin  cloth, 
and  his  wife  a cotton  sari,  costing  not  more  than  one 
rupee.  The  Indian  seems  to  make  everything  with- 
out tools ; he  uses  crooked  sticks  for  plows  and  gets 
on  without  chairs  or  tables.  For  him  there  are  no 
tailor  bills,  no  milliners,  and  rarely  any  doctors’ 
fees.  He  may  marry  without  waiting  for  an  in- 
come. He  drinks  no  alcohol  nor  does  he  eat  opium 
for,  even  were  he  desirous  of  doing  so,  his  economics 
would  debar  him  such  luxuries. 

A fairly  contented  Indian  peasant  or  artisan  usu- 
ally seems  to  Western  eyes  to  possess  no  comforts 
at  all.  There  are  veiy  few  modern  conveniences, 
no  carpets,  no  bedding  in  the  English  sense,  nothing 
indeed,  whatever  on  which  a British  pawnbroker 
would  in  an  hour  of  expansiveness  advance  three 
shillings.  The  owner’s  clothing  may  be  worth  five 
shillings,  if  he  has  a winter  garment,  and  his  wife’s 
perhaps  ten  sliillings  more,  her  festival  robe,  usu- 
ally diaphanous,  though  sometimes  as  thick  as  an 
ordinary  English  shirt,  having  a distinct  value. 
The  children  wear  nothing  at  all.  The  man  never 
sees  nor  thinks  about  meat  of  any  kind.  He  never 
dreams  of  buying  alcohol  in  any  shape.  The  food 
of  the  household  costs  about  six  shillings  a month 
and  consists  of  roasted  rice  or  unleavened  cakes. 
Fish  is  procurable,  vegetables,  milk,  and  a little 
clarified  butter,  the  whole  being  made  tasteful  with 
cheap  country  spices ; and  his  only  luxury  is  sugar, 
made  up  sometimes  cleverly,  sometimes  horridly, 
according  to  the  “way”  of  each  district  into  sweet- 
meats. . . . He  could  fly  into  the  jungle  with  his 
whole  possessions,  his  farm  or  hut  of  course  ex- 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  167 


cepted,  at  five  minutes’  notice  and  carry  them  all 
himself. 

You  will  be  told  in  many  parts  of  India  that  the 
majority  of  Indian  peasants  and  laboring  men  eat 
but  one  meal  a day.  I have  personal  knowledge  that 
this  is  true  in  certain  parts  of  India,  at  least.  As 
soon  as  one  gets  away  from  the  larger  cities,  into 
the  native  States  for  example,  one  finds  almost  a 
blank  ignorance  of  the  outside  world.  Many  arti- 
sans, whose  pictures  I took  in  the  towns  and  villages, 
told  my  interpreter  that  they  never  before  had  been 
photographed.  It  is  a proverb  that  India  is  never 
without  a famine  somewhere.  It  is  certain  that 
from  time  immemorial  the  Indian  has  been  averse 
to  killing  any  living  thing  for  food.  The  Brahmin 
in  Bombay  of  whom  I asked  what  he  considered  the 
greatest  boon  for  India  replied,  “Induce  the  Euro- 
peans to  stop  killing  our  cows!” 

The  poverty  and  abstemiousness  of  the  Indians 
can  be  realized  when  one  thinks,  that  in  the  majority 
of  cases,  they  have  naught  to  tax  but  their  skin,  and 
that  they  eat  nothing  that  can  be  taxed  save  per- 
haps salt.  (We  find,  however,  that  even  the  labor- 
ing man  is  beginning  to  demand  tea.  If  this 
continues  we  predict  the  downfall  of  abstemious- 
ness, as  sad  a fate  as  has  come  to  the  Britisher.) 
One  must  decide  that  apart  from  the  chewing  of 
pan  and  the  use  of  certain  sweetmeats  which  the 
Indian  dearly  loves,  the  artisan  and  laborer  are 
about  as  free  from  luxuries  as  any  creatures  under 
the  sun. 

This  continuous  poverty  and  forced  restraint  of 
desires  have  produced  in  the  Indian  a mental  habit, 
a kind  of  suppression  of  wants,  a will  and  ability 


168  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


to  go  without,  a trait  quite  absent  among  men  of  the 
West.  Among  the  Indian’s  highest  exemplars  are 
the  50,000  or  more  ascetics  or  fakers  whom  he  helps 
to  feed,  the  men  who  have  surpassed  him  in  this  an- 
nihilation of  desire.  His  whole  ambition  is  antipo- 
dal to  that  of  the  West;  while  the  Occidental  has 
worked  for  fame  the  Indian  has  been  engaged  in  an 
agelong  effort  towards  ideas  and  ideals.  One  of  the 
well  educated  Brahmins  whom  I met  in  Bombay  told 
me  he  was  trying  to  get  his  affairs  in  shape  to  grat- 
ify his  keenest  ambition  which  was  to  leave  the 
walks  of  men  and  to  become  a Sannyasis,  to  enter 
upon  the  last  and  highest  stage  of  existence,  the 
stage  of  thought  and  contemplation. 

The  strong  economic  tide  now  running  through 
this  old  nation  must  combat  a century-old  tendency 
of  non-gratification,  which  is  more  than  an  igno- 
rance. It  is  a religion,  an  expression  of  the  soul 
of  the  East.  Its  essence  is  in  the  thought  that  not 
what  a man  has  but  what  he  disregards  constitutes 
his  kingdom.  One  finds  the  indications  of  this  idea 
in  all  parts  of  the  peninsula. 

Here  as  everywhere  habits  rule,  and  the  habits 
of  the  East  are  in  line  with  necessitated  poverty 
and  restraint,  not  satisfaction.  To  be  sure,  the  In- 
dian wastes  much  on  weddings  and  funerals,  on  his 
priests  and  for  family  pride,  but  Indian  self-denial 
is  unheard  of  in  the  Occident.  He  is  a past  master 
in  self-restraint  and  in  his  placidity  and  content- 
ment, he  dwells  in  a realm  unknown  to  his  European 
brother.  Here  is  a unique  civilization,  independent 
of  furniture,  clothes,  and  luxurious  houses,  and  a 
poverty  without  the  loss  of  self-respect;  the  Indian 
is  indeed  filled  with  a pride  of  race  as  great  as  the 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  169 


Westerner’s  pride  of  gold.  He  feels  it  an  honor  to 
be  above  tbe  influence  of  material  circumstances. 

But  when  we  come  to  tbe  comparative  values  of 
this  marvelous  crushing  out  of  economic  desires  for 
centuries,  we  are  facing  a serious  problem.  In  be- 
ing saved  from  desire,  tbe  Indians  have  been  lost 
to  efficient  energy,  to  large  material  development, 
and  to  vast  producing  power.  When  Maksim  Gorki 
sailed  out  of  New  York  Harbor  and  passed  tbe  sky 
menacing  business  emporiums  of  tbe  American 
world,  be  expressed  his  keen  dissatisfaction  of 
Americanism  in  tbe  cry:  “All  this  alas,  for  a piece 

of  bread !” 

It  is  a question  for  world  philosophers  to  settle 
whether  tbe  energy  producing  profusion  of  tbe 
West  brings  in  its  wake  greater  ultimate  good  than 
tbe  materially  resultless  virtues  of  tbe  East.  Is 
tbe  ideal  in  reducing  desires  to  the  minimum,  as  do 
tbe  Oriental  Buddhists,  or  increasing  desires  to  tbe 
maximum  of  human  ambition  as  advocated  by 
Western  civilization?  Or  is  the  Utopian  standard 
a golden  mean  between  tbe  two?  Is  it  wise  to  raise 
tbe  Indian’s  standards  of  living  at  tbe  danger  of 
filling  all  India  with  Western  discontent?  Will  tbe 
Indian  lose  the  independent  side  of  his  character  by 
being  flung  into  the  race  for  physical  comforts? 
These  are  far-reaching  questions  and  difficult  of  set- 
tlement except  by  actual  experimentation. 

At  any  rate  Indians  may  well  be  touched  to  their 
weal  by  some  of  tbe  material  accomplishments  and 
comforts  of  the  West,  and  we  are  quite  sure  that 
some  of  tbe  lust  of  tbe  world  and  tbe  pride  of  life 
which  hangs  so  all  sufficiently  and  powerfully  be- 
fore tbe  eyes  of  the  present  day  Westerner,  may  be 


170  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tempered  advantageously  by  the  counter-balancing 
content-producing  abstemiousness  of  India. 

The  modern  Indian  must  not  only  attend  to  his 
constructive  progress  in  industrial  and  agricultural 
arts,  he  must  also  learn  to  husband  his  savings 
along  several  lines  where  at  present  he  reveals  the 
utmost  prodigality  and  wastefulness.  One  would 
think  that  in  a country  where  millions  of  men  and 
women  go  hungry  for  days,  and  where  in  many  sec- 
tions people  live  upon  the  edge  of  starvation,  there 
would  be  found  a systematic  frugality  unknown  in 
the  West.  And  this  to  be  sure  is  true  in  relation  to 
most  matters.  But  these  very  people  who  will 
struggle  so  hard  to  keep  out  of  debt  in  small  mat- 
ters, and  who  scarcely  know  the  sensation  of  lux- 
ury, will  mortgage  their  futures  and  their  chil- 
dren’s futures  as  well,  for  weddings,  funerals  and 
religious  parades,  simply  for  the  sake  of  show  and 
ceremony  so  dear  to  the  Oriental  heart,  paying 
their  money  lenders  therefor  interest  at  twenty  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  per  annum. 

Cases  were  brought  to  my  attention  by  those 
who  have  for  many  years  lived  in  close  association 
with  rural  life  in  India,  of  men  who  were  still  work- 
ing to  pay  off  the  wedding  debts  of  their  fathers 
and  grandfathers.  Dr.  W.  L.  Ferguson,  one  of  the 
most  efficient  missionaries  in  southern  India,  told 
me  of  a young  man  who  had  inherited  from  his  de- 
ceased father  a heavy  debt  contracted  for  a wed- 
ding in  the  family,  which  debt  was  bearing  interest 
at  the  rate  of  seventy-five  per  cent,  per  annum. 

Another  man  of  his  acquaintance  is  paying  more 
than  half  his  salary  every  month  as  interest  on 
debts  which  he  contracted  in  order  to  make  a proper 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  171 


wedding  and  a proper  funeral  for  a member  of  liis 
family.  This  man  had  been  paying  on  a part  of  the 
principle  one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  per  annum 
and  on  a part  of  the  remainder  seventy-five  per  cent, 
per  annum,  and  this  for  twelve  years.  I am  in- 
formed that  at  least  one-third,  and  in  some  cases 
one-half  of  the  people  in  the  lower  grades  of  the 
population  in  this  southern  section  of  India,  are 
laboring  under  this  kind  of  bondage.  The  people  in 
the  higher  walks  of  life  are  less  burdened  by  inter- 
est, but  nearly  all  are  in  the  chains  of  debt  to  a cer- 
tain extent.  So  true  is  this  that  one  of  the  popular 
ways  of  estimating  the  economic  condition  of  a man 
is  to  say:  “Ah,  he  is  a very  rich  fellow;  he  has 

rupees  (a  big  sum)  in  debt.” 

It  is  not  merely  in  the  West,  therefore,  that  the 
business  man’s  wealth  and  his  credit  are  closely  in- 
ter-related. I suppose  there  is  no  country  in  the 
world  comparable  to  India,  where  the  wealth  of  the 
man  is  more  universally  rated,  not  so  much  accord- 
ing to  what  he  has,  but  according  to  what  he  can 
borrow. 

A decided  difference,  however,  between  India  and 
the  West  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Indian  borrows, 
not  upon  his  securities,  but  upon  his  mortgaged 
honor  and  the  honor  of  his  posterity.  An  ordinary 
Indian  laborer  or  peasant  whose  entire  worldly  pos- 
sessions may  be  less  than  fifty  rupees,  can  borrow 
five  hundred  rupees  from  the  money  lender  for  a 
grand  marriage  or  coming-out  party  of  his  daugh- 
ter, and  the  money  lender  knows  that  he  will  be  able 
to  collect  the  obligation.  I have  personally  seen  an 
Afghan  money  lender  in  the  Northern  provinces 
dogging  the  footsteps  of  a poor  syce,  or  stable  man, 


172  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


to  secure  interest  upon  debts  that  bad  been  running 
for  years. 

A gentleman  in  whose  house  I was  a guest  in 
Lahore,  said  to  me  one  day:  “Do  you  see  that  man 
going  around  the  corner  of  the  stable?  He  is  after 
my  coachman.  He  comes  regularly  each  week  and 
carries  away  with  him  virtually  every  cent  which 
my  coachman  can  save  from  his  salary.”  I asked 
the  rate  of  interest  which  the  coachman  was  paying 
and  was  horrified  to  learn  that  it  was  thirty  per 
cent,  a month.  “Is  there  no  recourse  for  your 
coachman?”  I asked.  “Why  does  he  pay  it?”  He 
replied,  “Public  opinion  is  on  the  side  of  the  money 
lender  to  such  an  extent,  that  if  the  coachman  re- 
fused to  pay,  his  creditor  might  come  with  a band 
of  his  friends  and  beat  him  into  submission  to  his 
usurious  demands.” 

One  finds  at  present  in  many  parts  of  India  co- 
operative societies  and  savings  banks  similar  to 
those  which  are  being  established  in  Egypt  and 
which  are  assisting  greatly  in  affording  opportunity 
for  the  laboring  classes  to  save  their  earnings.  But 
these  agencies,  as  will  be  seen  readily  by  any  one 
who  studies  the  question  at  all  closely,  do  not  go  to 
the  root  of  the  difficulty.  It  is  plastering  the 
wound  that  should  be  probed  to  the  bottom,  for  no 
matter  how  much  the  poor  Indian  coolie  saves,  it 
will  be  only  a larger  amount  to  go  into  the  pockets 
of  the  money  lender,  unless  something  can  be  done 
to  bring  dishonor  and  disgrace  upon  this  foolish 
idea  of  incurring  debt  for  the  sake  of  a mere  inglo- 
rious custom.  There  must  be  a revolution  of  ideas 
together  with  a new  standard  of  economics  aiming 
at  the  inauguration  of  probity  in  the  conduct  of 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  173 


business  and  household  and  society  expenditure 
within  the  limits  of  the  individual’s  income.  It  is 
at  this  point  that  the  Government  of  India  has  re- 
cently become  aroused  and  a beginning  has  been 
made  toward  the  passing  of  laws  intended  to  make 
impossible  the  incurring  of  debt  beyond  the  ability 
to  pay,  and  also  aiming  at  the  abolition  of  these 
preposterous  rates  of  interest  by  money  lenders. 
If  the  Indians  of  small  communities  could  be  in- 
duced to  spend  in  the  interest  of  education  or  home 
or  community  advancement,  or  even  to  place  in  the 
savings  bank,  the  vast  amounts  which  they  spend 
in  interest  upon  debts,  there  would  arise  speedily  a 
new  and  prosperous  Indian  community. 

It  is  a question  then  of  thoroughgoing  economic 
regeneration  to  which  the  coming  man  of  India  is 
called  as  a pioneer.  It  is  one  of  the  phases  of  edu- 
cation which  is  sorely  neglected  at  present;  al- 
though in  a few  of  the  more  prominent  institutions 
I found  books  dealing  with  social  and  political  and 
even  municipal  economics,  these  books  are  as  a rule 
books  of  reference  on  the  library  shelves,  and  have 
not  become  the  text  books  of  departments  of  eco- 
nomics in  the  University  and  college  life  of  the 
country.  Until  educated  Indians  as  well  as  Euro- 
peans get  an  enlivened  conscience  in  relation  to  the 
desperate  need  of  India  for  a rejuvenated  economic 
sense  in  this  matter,  one  can  hardly  see  how  the 
poor  laborer  is  to  be  loosened  from  his  slavery.  It 
is  a case  that  must  have  the  combined  forces  of 
Government  and  public  sentiment  among  Indians, 
in  combination,  for  its  solution.  General  education 
will  help,  but  specific  education  and  vigorous  legis- 
lation together  are  urgently  needed  to  remedy  this 


174  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


economic  disgrace  of  India’s  agricultural  popula- 
tion. 

Reform  must  begin  in  this  matter,  as  in  all  mat- 
ters, at  the  top  of  society.  A well-to-do  Moham- 
medan, for  example,  told  me  that  when  his  daugh- 
ter was  married,  he  gave  her  fifty  suits  of  silk  cloth- 
ing with  the  jewels  to  match  and  that  the  feasting 
lasted  twenty-one  days.  Tents  were  put  up  in  his 
garden  and  he  entertained  relatives  and  friends 
from  all  parts  of  India,  who  came  with  their 
retinues  of  servants  and  remained  for  days  and 
weeks  as  his  guests.  He  said  with  a cynical  smile, 
“If  I had  another  daughter  to  be  married,  I am 
afraid  I should  never  be  able  to  lift  my  head  before 
my  creditors.”  And  this  man,  too,  was  one  of  the 
first  and  most  enlightened  and  influential  citizens 
in  the  entire  native  state  of  which  he  was  a promi- 
nent judge. 

This  injustice,  relative  to  weddings  especially, 
has  caused  one  of  the  large  family  clans  with  which 
I happened  to  be  closely  associated  in  different 
parts  of  India,  to  inaugurate  a rule  that  a fixed  and 
comparatively  small  sum,  carefully  and  equally  reg- 
ulated, shall  be  spent  by  the  bride  and  the  bride- 
groom, and  this  quite  regardless  of  the  financial 
ability  of  the  families  interested. 

Another  significant  note  of  protest  came  to  me  in 
the  native  state  of  Hyderabad  where  one  of  the 
daughters  of  a wealthy  Mohammedan  received  at 
her  wedding,  clothes  and  jewelry  sufficient  to  last 
her  entire  life,  but  where  a younger  educated 
daughter  had  demanded  instead  of  this  enormous 
outlay  in  clothing,  bonds  which  properly  invested 
would  yield  yearly  an  interest  to  be  used  in  a more 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  175 


sensible  and  practical  way  for  family  expenses,  and 
the  education  of  her  children. 

But  it  is  not  simply  in  these  matters  of  borrow- 
ing and  extravagance  that  the  Indian  comes  short 
of  his  highest  business  possibilities.  He  is,  fur- 
thermore, decidedly  deficient  in  systematic  business 
methods.  I have  had  occasion  during  my  visits  to 
India  to  visit  many  Indian  editors,  publishers  and 
newspaper  men.  The  lack  of  order  and  arrange- 
ment in  their  surroundings  has  been  one  of  the  in- 
delible impressions  which  these  visits  have  left 
upon  my  mind.  One  of  the  leading  editors  of  an 
Indian  journal  and  owner  of  a large  publishing 
house  frankly  and  voluntarily  confessed  to  me  that 
he  was  utterly  incapable  of  preserving  any  system 
in  his  office  or  his  salesroom.  When  I asked  him 
the  reason  for  his  haphazard,  hit-or-miss  way  of 
running  a business  of  great  possibility,  he  simply 
shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  replied,  “I  know  it 
means  a loss  of  hundreds  of  rupees  to  me  every 
year,  but  I just  can’t  be  systematic.  It  is  Indian 
not  to  be.” 

I was  dining  in  the  city  of  Calcutta  one  evening 
with  a most  intelligent  young  Bengali,  who  was  a 
graduate  of  an  American  western  university,  and 
who  was  endeavoring  to  put  his  family  estates, 
which  consisted  of  several  thousand  acres  of  valu- 
able property  in  Bengal,  upon  a paying  basis.  I 
said  to  him,  “What  do  you  find  to  be  your  greatest 
difficulty?”  He  replied,  “Lack  of  system  and  at- 
tention to  detail  in  every  department  on  the  part  of 
my  assistants.”  “What  is  your  remedy?”  I asked. 
“The  employment  of  foreigners,”  he  said,  “at  least 
until  we  can  teach  Indians  the  importance  of  a tlior- 


176  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


ough  attention  to  orderly  arrangement,  regularity, 
punctuality,  and  reliable  business  methods.” 

The  most  successful  and  perhaps  the  largest  busi- 
ness concern  in  the  city  of  Calcutta  is  owned  by 
an  Indian.  He  has  been  astute  enough  to  appreci- 
ate this  racial  weakness  of  his  people  and  has  placed 
at  the  head  of  departments,  competent  and  trained 
Europeans. 

One  reason  for  this  disregard  of  order  lies  in  the 
Oriental’s  desire  for  ease.  This  desire  for  freedom 
from  harassing  conventions  and  forms  marks  off 
the  Asiatic  from  the  races  of  the  West.  What  Eu- 
ropeans look  upon  as  the  defects  of  Indian  civiliza- 
tions springs  frequently  from  the  temperamental 
qualities  of  the  Asiatic — the  wish  to  be  free  from  de- 
tail, to  be  waited  upon  rather  than  personally  to 
trace  things  down,  to  be  exempted  from  the  worry 
that  seems  a veritable  part  of  Western  successful 
accomplishment. 

I was  frequently  warned  by  Englishmen  concern- 
ing the  calling  hours  in  India.  It  would  be  useless 
to  call  upon  Indian  officials  in  the  early  afternoon 
for  they  were  sleeping.  Indeed,  the  Indian  is 
probably  more  Asiatic  than  any  other  Oriental  in 
his  aversions  to  display  of  energy  of  any  sort.  He 
does  not  like  to  take  trouble.  To  him  European 
formalities  are  useless  “fuss  and  feathers”;  they 
get  on  his  nerves.  Like  the  Egyptian,  he  is  always 
conscious  of  a to-morrow.  One  finds  repeatedly  in 
India  among  men  who  are  sufficiently  educated  and 
self-respecting  to  have  an  opinion  and  hold  to  it, 
that  Eastern  feeling  common  to  the  Oriental  every- 
where; it  is  similar  to  that  expressed  by  Twefyk 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  177 


Paslaa  who,  when  a Minister  at  Paris  in  1860,  spoke 
of  that  European  capital  as  follows: 

What  I complain  of  is  the  mode  of  life.  I am  oppressed, 
not  by  the  official  duties,  they  are  easy,  but  by  the  social 
ones.  I have  had  to  write  fifteen  notes  this  morning  all 
about  trifles.  In  Turkey  life  is  sans  gene;  if  a man  calls 
on  you  he  does  not  leave  a card ; if  he  sends  you  a nosegay 
he  does  not  expect  a letter  of  thanks ; if  he  invites  you  he 
does  not  require  an  answer.  There  are  no  engagements  to 
be  remembered  and  fulfilled  a fortnight  afterwards.  When 
you  wish  to  see  a friend,  you  know  that  he  dines  at  sunset ; 
you  get  into  your  caique,  and  row  down  to  him  through  the 
finest  scenery  in  the  world.  You  find  him  in  his  garden, 
smoke  a chibouque,  talk  or  remain  silent  as  you  like,  dine 
and  return.  If  you  wish  to  see  a Minister  you  go  to  his 
office;  you  are  not  interfered  with  or  announced;  you  lift 
the  curtain  of  his  audience  room,  sit  by  him  on  his  divan, 
smoke  your  pipe,  tell  your  story,  get  his  answer,  and  have 
finished  your  business  in  the  time  w7hich  it  takes  here  to 
make  an  appointment,  in  half  the  time  that  you  waste  here 
in  an  ante-room.  There  is  no  dressing  for  dinners  or  for 
evening  parties.  Evening  parties,  indeed,  do  not  exist. 
There  are  no  letters  to  receive  or  to  answer.  There  is  no 
post  hour  to  be  remembered  or  waited  for,  as  there  is  no 
post.  Life  glides  away  without  trouble.  Here  everything 
is  troublesome.  All  enjoyment  is  destroyed  by  the  forms 
and  ceremonies  and  elaborate  regulation  which  are  intended, 
I suppose,  to  increase  it  or  to  protect  it.  My  liberal  friends 
complain  here  of  the  want  of  political  liberty.  What  I 
complain  of  is  the  want  of  social  liberty ; it  is  far  the  more 
important.  Few  people  suffer  from  the  despotism  of  a 
Government  and  those  suffer  only  occasionally.  But  this 
social  despotism,  this  despotism  of  the  salon,  this  code  of 
arbitrary  little  reglements,  observances,  prohibitions,  and 
exigencies,  affects  everybody,  and  every  day  and  every  hour. 


178  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


One  finds  this  chafing  over  forms  and  rules  quite 
general  throughout  the  Orient.  A Mohammedan 
business  man  in  Burmah  told  me  of  his  chief  cause 
of  complaint  against  the  English  official  who  caused 
him  to  wait  before  his  doo-r  for  two  hours  when, 
had  the  business  man  been  a Mohammedan,  he  could 
have  seen  him  at  once.  The  Indian  desires  the  un- 
restrained will,  save  possibly  in  matters  relating  to 
religion  where  he  is  ruled  by  traditional  prejudices. 
His  idea  of  ease  is  to  be  released  from  trifling  mat- 
ters. He  does  not  wish  to  be  obliged  to  do  things: 

“The  ’eathen  in  his  blindness  bows  down  to  wood 
an’  stone, 

’E  don’t  obey  no  orders  unless  they  is  ’is  own.” 

European  officials  continually  complain  of  Oriental 
officers  because  they  will  not  attend  to  details.  Ex- 
actness, punctuality,  regularity,  promptness,  any- 
thing like  steady  responsibility,  are  the  bete  noir  of 
the  Oriental.  It  is 

“All  along  o’  dirtiness  all  along  o’  mess, 

All  along  o’  doin’  things  rather  more  or  less.” 

They  are  spoiled  children,  as  it  often  seems  to  the 
Occidental.  It  is  the  temperament  that  looks  upon 
life  as  most  successful  when  most  quiet  and  unper- 
turbed by  details. 

It  was  said  that  Charles  II  was  afflicted  with 
what  then  was  known  as  a mental  low  fever.  It 
was  not  unlike  the  Oriental  ennui  and  this  trait 
amounts  almost  to  hopelessness,  when  administra- 
tive organization  is  concerned.  No  wonder  that 
Indians  regard  the  English  energies  as  “unaccount- 
able, uncomfortable  works  of  God.”  Across  their 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  179 


ideals  could  usually  be  written,  “the  love  of  the 
afternoon  life.”  It  is  a land  where  all  is  without 
stress  and  duty,  where  the  servants  lie  within  call 
outside  the  door  at  night  and  where  the  dogs  sleep  in 
the  sun.  The  summun  bonum  of  the  Oriental  is  not 
to  be  always  attending  to  duties  but  to  be  quietly  sat- 
isfied. The  still  life  is  in  his  veins.  School  boys 
learn  by  rote  Longfellow’s  poem,  “The  Psalm  of 
Life,”  “Act  in  the  living  present!” — but  it  is  only  a 
form  of  words,  as  some  one  has  said,  “life,  to  be 
delightful,  must  be  always  afternoon,  and  afternoon 
of  a holiday.”  The  Indian  poetess,  Sarojini  Naidu 
says:  “My  ancestors  for  thousands  of  years  have 
been  lovers  of  the  forests  and  mountain  caves,  great 
dreamers,  great  scholars,  great  ascetics.  My 
father  is  a dreamer  himself,  a great  dreamer,  a 
great  man  whose  life  has  been  a magnificent  fail- 
ure.” 

None  perhaps  have  caught  more  surely  this  spirit 
of  dream  and  beauty,  than  Mrs.  Naidu  herself  in 
her  “Palanquin  Bearers”: 

Lightly,  0 lightly,  we  bear  her  along, 

She  sways  like  a flower  in  the  wind  of  our  song. 

She  skims  like  a bird  on  the  foam  of  a stream, 

She  floats  like  a laugh  from  the  lips  of  a dream. 
Gaily,  0 gaily,  we  glide  and  we  sing 
We  bear  her  along  like  a pearl  on  a string. 

The  Englishman  or  the  Westerner  who  fails  to 
understand  or  to  sympathize  with  this  idealism  of 
India,  gets  disliked  as  a matter  of  course.  He  is 
an  uncomfortable  and  disturbing  factor.  If  he 
lacks  the  imagination  to  see  how  he  is  different,  he 
makes  himself  even  more  ridiculous  in  the  Indian’s 


180  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


eyes,  who  regards  him  simply  as  among  those  who 
“for  some  mysterious  purpose  of  the  All  Wise  are 
permitted  to  make  pen  knives  and  sell  piece  goods 
and  conquer  the  world.”  The  European  appears 
on  the  Indian’s  horizon  as  a necessary  part  of  civ- 
ilization, interesting,  hut  not  compelling  of  either 
admiration  or  imitation. 

If  it  is  true  that  the  success  of  any  nation  de- 
pends upon  its  commercial  integrity,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  India,  in  common  with  certain  other  Ori- 
ental nations  must  give  attention  not  only  to  sys- 
tem, but  also  to  commercial  honesty.  This  present 
system,  to  be  sure,  has  been  a heritage  from  years 
of  uneven  and  oppressive  government  and  seems  to 
be  more  or  less  ingrained  in  the  Indian  tempera- 
ment and  habit. 

I refer  more  especially  to  the  extremely  com- 
mon instances  of  dishonesty  and  unscrupulousness 
found  in  bazaars  and  among  shop  keepers.  One 
who  endeavors  to  do  business  in  any  bazaar  or  store 
either  in  village,  town  or  city  in  India  will  very 
soon  discover  that  there  are  at  least  three  prices 
for  every  article,  one  for  the  white  man,  another  for 
the  Eurasian  and  a third  for  the  Indian.  In  the 
case  of  the  large  tourist  centers  the  number  and 
variety  of  these  prices  will  doubtless  be  greatly  in- 
creased and  depend  largely  upon  the  amount  of  gul- 
libility which  the  intuitive  Indian  merchant  per- 
ceives in  the  face  of  the  alien  purchaser.  Although 
one  will  find  of  course,  many  and  notable  exceptions 
to  this  rule,  for  it  would  be  foolhardly  as  untrue,  to 
state  that  all  Indian  shop  keepers  were  dishonest  in 
the  value  they  affixed  to  their  wares,  it  has  been  my 
experience  personally  (and  I have  asked  questions 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  181 


in  many  sections  regarding  tliis  subject),  that  tbe 
Indian  retail  business  man  cannot  be  trusted  to  tbe 
extent  that  tbe  European  or  tbe  Westerner  can 
usually  be  trusted  in  tbe  matter  of  small  purchases 
and  fixed  prices.  One  cannot  say  that  tbe  bazaar 
keeper  is  entirely  at  fault,  nor  would  it  be  possible 
to  state  that  be  attaches  any  dishonesty  to  that 
which  would  be  considered  uneven  and  unscrupu- 
lous business  method  for  a Westerner,  since  from 
time  immemorial  tbe  Oriental  has  distrusted  his 
neighbor  in  the  matter  of  bargaining  and  to  get  the 
best  of  his  customer,  or  on  the  other  hand,  to  get 
the  best  of  the  trader,  has  been  considered  a mark 
of  credit  rather  than  disgrace. 

It  is  almost  trite  to  observe  that  one  of  the  first 
rules  which  the  globe  trotter  and  naive  tourist 
learn,  both  from  their  guide  books  and  often  by 
bitter  experience,  is  that  the  Indian  shopkeeper 
places  as  his  first  price  a figure  from  three  to  five 
times  as  great  as  he  can  afford  to  take  for  his  com- 
modities. Apart  from  the  good  natured  manner  in 
which  the  average  tourist  overlooks  this  matter  of 
unjust  business  dealing,  since  the  exercise  of  bar- 
gaining furnishes  local  color  and  a certain  amount 
of  expert  ingenuity  and  skill  to  a bored  and  blase 
traveler,  the  matter  of  uprightness  in  commercial 
affairs  as  related  not  only  to  the  purchaser  but  also 
to  the  Indian  merchant,  is  one  of  considerable  mo- 
ment. It  is  especially  a significant  question  of  prin- 
ciple to  those  men,  Indian  and  European  alike,  who 
entertain  the  hope  of  building  a new  India  upon  the 
basis  of  firm  and  equable  economic  and  commercial 
probity. 

Nor  does  this  barter  system  affect  merely  the 


182  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


small  souvenir  seller  in  the  native  cities.  The 
principle  runs  through  the  entire  trading  life  of 
India,  influencing  even  the  foreign  merchants.  This 
was  illustrated  in  a famous  curio  store  of  the  high- 
est class  in  one  of  the  Indian  cities  where  I had  been 
purchasing  certain  rare  objects  of  Indian  art.  As 
we  were  leaving  the  store  my  wife,  with  the  usual 
feminine  hesitancy  to  depart  from  such  congenial 
surroundings,  picked  up  a very  artistic  piece  of 
brass,  and  while  she  was  admiring  it,  the  owner  of 
the  store,  a European,  happened  to  pass  through  the 
room.  He  came  over  to  us  and  said:  “That  is  an 

odd  piece  of  Thibetan  brass,  is  it  not?”  My  wife 
said  wistfully,  “Yes,  I wish  I could  buy  it,  but  I 
fear  my  pocketbook  is  empty,”  at  which  the  owner 
turned  to  a clerk  and  said,  “Put  this  piece  in  the 
lady’s  carriage,”  saying  to  us  aside,  “I  don’t  know 
what  you  have  bought  in  this  store,  but  whatever  it 
is,  I am  sure  you  have  paid  too  much  for  it.” 

It  is  not  simply  in  the  vicissitudes  of  bargaining 
that  one  finds  the  Indian  tradesman  deficient.  The 
Westerner  is  astonished  at  the  general  slackness 
which  he  finds  in  attendance  upon  customers,  in  fill- 
ing orders,  and  in  delivering  purchases.  There 
seems  to  be  comparatively  little  effort  expended, 
either  in  making  or  in  holding  customers.  At  least 
this  effort  does  not  appear  to  be  at  all  a regular  and 
systematic  one.  A certain  superstition  is  fre- 
quently evident  amongst  shop  keepers  throughout 
the  Orient.  Merchants  have  their  lucky  and  un- 
lucky days.  As  in  Egypt,  one  hears  so  frequently: 
“Boukra!”  (to-morrow)  or  “as  God  wills”!,  or 
“perhaps  another  day  you  will  buy”;  likewise 
among  Indian  shop  keepers  there  is  frequently 


INDIAN  INDUSTEY  AND  ECONOMICS  183 


evident  a kind  of  “it-is-all-on-the-knees-of-the- 
gods”  feeling.  A sort  of  “Kismet”  fatality  pre- 
sides over  the  merchant  and  his  wares.  If  you  buy, 
well  and  good,  if  not,  no  one  is  sorrow-stricken  and 
you  will  rarely  see  the  cloud  pass  over  the  face  of 
the  shop  keeper  as  is  often  the  case,  amongst  the  re- 
tail merchants  of  the  West,  when  you  walk  out  of 
the  store,  without  purchases. 

This  mercantile  superstition,  especially  as  it  per- 
sists in  country  districts  and  small  towns,  is  often 
most  ludicrous.  I have  been  told  of  a village  mer- 
chant who  called  off  a transaction  because  after  he 
made  the  bargain,  he  went  home  and  sneezed  once. 
Had  he  sneezed  twice  or  thrice  he  would  have  car- 
ried out  his  contract  with  great  joy.  Another  vil- 
lager refused  to  hold  to  his  bargain  with  a customer 
because  he  met  a widow  in  the  road  while  on  the  way 
to  accomplish  the  business  he  had  promised,  so 
great  was  the  ill  fortune  which  he  attached  to  the 
meeting  with  such  an  ill  omened  person.  One  finds 
also  that  certain  men  close  their  shops  for  days  at 
a time  without  assigning  any  reason  whatever  to 
the  public  who  have  been  accustomed  to  buy  of  them 
their  regular  rations.  A certain  gentleman  who 
was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  village  customs 
told  me  that  he  was  often  accustomed  to  press  for 
a reply  to  his  question.:  “Why  is  not  the  shop- 

keeper here!”  and  to  receive  the  somewhat  ambigu- 
ous answer:  “He  does  not  feel  happy  in  his 

mind !” 

It  may  be  too  much  to  say  that  this  whole  matter 
of  commercial  relationship  lies  imbedded  in  a faulty 
appreciation  of  right  and  wrong.  But,  at  least 
from  the  Westerner’s  point  of  view,  I think  this  is 


184  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


true.  The  principle  of  elemental  justice  and  right- 
eousness, regardless  of  circumstances,  is  often  ab- 
sent. D.  L.  Moody  used  to  say,  “A  man  is  what  he 
is,  in  the  dark.”  One  cannot  but  feel  that  the  In- 
dian business  man  is  honest  or  dishonest  not  so 
much  from  principle,  as  from  expediency.  It  de- 
pends upon  the  man  with  whom  he  is  dealing 
whether  his  honesty  is  apparent  or  whether  the 
light  that  is  within  him  shall  be  darkness.  In  other 
words,  the  business  man  is  not  true  to  himself,  and 
therefore,  cannot  be  true  to  others.  He  does  not 
trust  himself ; he,  therefore,  cannot  believe  in  others. 

One  only  has  to  investigate  the  lack  of  confidence 
which  Indians  have  in  co-operative  schemes  and 
corporate  management,  such  as  banking  and  agri- 
cultural and  irrigation  co-operation — in  fact  in  al- 
most any  pursuit  where  a man  is  called  upon  to 
trust  his  neighbor.  I have  been  told  by  many  repu- 
table Indians  that  there  are  few  people  who  are 
willing  to  trust  others  with  their  money.  The  av- 
erage native  prefers  to  melt  his  gold  and  silver  and 
put  it  into  jewels  for  his  wife,  or  hide  it  in  the  wall 
or  floor  of  the  house,  or  bury  it  in  the  ground,  rather 
than  place  it  at  interest  in  the  local  banks.  This 
lack  of  faith  in  humanity  in  general  is  in  a sense 
the  heaviest  hand  laid  in  restraint  upon  Indian 
trade. 

The  country  has  not  yet  discovered  the  vast  pos- 
sibilities of  an  extended  credit  system  which  has 
been  the  key  unlocking  the  mighty  resources  of 
Western  business  endeavor.  There  is  still  the  un- 
certainty and  hesitation  akin  to  the  suspicion  and 
wariness  of  belated  races.  It  is  one  of  the  puzzling 
things  to  the  student  of  India  to  see  a race  of  peo- 


INDIAN  INDUSTRY  AND  ECONOMICS  185 


pie  who  have  advanced  so  far  beyond  the  Westerner 
in  spiritual  and  religious  restraint,  who  have 
eclipsed  anything  that  Europeans  have  yet  accom- 
plished in  their  power  of  speculative  and  meditative 
exercise  through  what  must  be  considered  as  a su- 
perior intellectual  alertness,  but  still  have  been 
seemingly  incapable  of  putting  their  high  religious 
ideas  and  ideals  to  the  practical  test  of  believing  in 
and  depending  upon  these  same  lofty  traits  in  their 
human  relationships.  An  official  who  has  spent  a 
quarter  of  a century  in  India  expressed  what  the 
thoughtful  and  observant  Westerner  must  feel  wdio 
has  lived  long  in  this  land  when  he  said:  “In  my 
opinion  the  keenest  and  shrewdest  brain  to  be  found 
in  any  nationality  is  that  of  the  Bengali,”  but  he 
added,  “he  lacks  concentration,  perseverance,  and 
practicality,  otherwise  he  would  rule  both  the  busi- 
ness and  political  world.” 

Is  this  lack  a racial  one  or  a moral  one?  Is  it 
physical,  temperamental  or  more  deeply  seated  in 
the  happy  adjustment  of  creed  and  conduct?  Does 
the  Indian  business  man  fail  because  he  does  not 
know,  or  because  he  does  not  will  to  do?  These  are 
pivotal  questions  for  the  modernizing  leaders  of 
India. 


xm 


Religious  Transformation 

IN  India  every  fifth  Indian  is  a Mohammedan. 

Mussulmans  are  scattered  throughout  India  and 
mixed  with  Hindus  in  almost  every  section.  For 
nine  hundred  years  the  Moslem  has  been  proselytiz- 
ing in  India,  his  missionary  work  beginning  not 
later  than  three  centuries  subsequent  to  the  Hegira. 

Islam,  in  contrast  to  Hinduism,  presents  to  the 
Oriental  a comparatively  simple  and  certain  mode 
of  salvation  in  its  worldly  type  of  monotheism, 
which  for  the  Moslem  is  intended  to  answer  all 
doubts  and  mysteries  about  destiny  and  to  scatter 
all  fears  by  the  impressive  and  final  doctrine : 
“There  is  no  God  but  God  and  Mahomet  is  his 
Prophet.”  According  to  the  Mohammedan  a sov- 
ereign Will  rules  the  universe,  explaining  the  deep 
mystery  of  existence;  to  him  whatever  is,  is  right, 
because  it  is  the  will  of  Allah. 

In  morals,  as  regards  the  intermingling  of  sexes, 
Mohammedanism  is  the  least  strict  of  the  Asiatic 
religions.  Mahomet  and  the  Koran  allow  four 
wives  to  each  man,  free,  or  what  is  called  triple  di- 
vorce at  the  will  of  the  man,  and  a system  of  concu- 
binage limited  only  by  economic  power  to  purchase 
s-la'ves.  It  establishes  and  maintains  the  harem 
idea-  of  marriage  and  gives  little  attention  to  the 
bridling  and  control  of  the  senses. 

Nevertheless,  the  Koran  punishes  adultery  with 

186 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  187 


death  and  its  adherents  are  evidently  drawn  to  Is- 
lam and  held  to  it  with  remarkable  loyalty,  not  by 
the  sexual  laxity  of  its  laws,  but  by  the  peculiar 
grip  of  its  high  ideal — an  ideal,  indeed,  vastly 
higher  than  its  practice.  One  needs  only  to  con- 
sider that  millions  of  women  have  accepted  Islam, 
and  to-day  are  among  its  most  devoted  followers, 
and  also  that  Mohammedanism  has  always  won  Ori- 
entals quite  regardless  of  the  worship  of  the  senses, 
to  realize  that  this  great  religion  has  had  a stronger 
might  than  that  of  the  flesh  in  its  victorious  march 
among  Oriental  people. 

The  Indian’s  home  has  been  for  years  the  center 
of  religious  rites  and  ceremonies.  Religion  has 
been  his  education  and  his  very  life.  To  him  do- 
mestic functions  are  religious  functions;  social  in- 
tercourse has  been  religious  intercourse,  his  voca- 
tion has  been  chosen  in  the  name  and  under  the  in- 
fluence of  religion;  birth,  marriage,  his  calling,  and 
his  death,  in  short  every  important  event  is  a re- 
ligious event. 

His  religious  temper,  however,  is  conservative. 
He  is  the  exponent  of  a people,  who  like  the  Jews 
of  Palestine,  consider  themselves  the  inheritors  of 
a national  and  exclusive  faith.  It  is  an  inheritance 
too  valuable  and  too  special  to  be  shared  with  out- 
siders. The  Indian,  therefore,  is  not  a religious 
propagandist;  he  is  not  an  extensive  but  an  inten- 
sive religionist.  He  may  be  a radical  and  an  in- 
surgent in  politics,  but  in  religion  his  inclination  is 
to  stand  by  the  faith  of  his  fathers. 

This  conservatism  manifested  in  the  religious 
temperament  has  been  tremendously  aided  by  the 
Hindu  caste  system,  a system  which  John  P.  Jones 


188  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


of  India  has  designated  as  “the  most  rigorous,  if 
not  the  most  cruel,  inquisition  that  the  world  has 
known.”  This  system  has  been  watchfully 
guarded  by  Brahmanism,  and  its  strict  laws  have 
defied  the  entrance  of  other  religions.  Against 
these  religious  barriers  other  faiths  for  centuries 
have  hurled  their  weapons  almost  entirely  in  vain. 

The  Sikh  religion  was  originally  a religious  and 
a brave  attempt  to  harmonize  Mohammedanism  and 
Hinduism.  At  the  present  time,  this  also  is  gradu- 
ally yielding  to  caste  dominance  and  to  the  fascina- 
tion of  Hindu  ritual. 

The  religious  tendency  of  the  Indian  is  also,  para- 
doxical as  it  may  seem,  toward  an  universal  re- 
ceptivity in  religious  thought.  Almost  every  shade 
of  theological  and  metaphysical  belief  is  found  here. 
India  has  been  surfeited  by  religious  ideas.  The 
"Westerner  stands  aghast  at  the  chaotic  mass  of 
conflicting  tendencies  and  theories  pressed  into  the 
theology  and  philosophy  of  the  Indian.  From 
some  angles  Hinduism  is  a hydra-headed  idolatry, 
and  her  Pantheon  is  an  unexampled  exhibition  of 
universality  in  religion. 

We  are  assured  that  there  are  30,000,000  gods  in 
the  Hindu  Pantheon,  and  that  each  attends  to  the 
affairs  of  his  own  particular  jurisdiction.  Most  of 
them  seem  inclined  to  he  wicked,  cruel,  and  unkind, 
and  delight  in  bringing  misfortune  upon  their  devo- 
tees, which  ill  luck  can  only  be  averted  by  the  inter- 
cession of  a priest.  Gods  and  demons  haunt  every 
hill,  grove,  gorge,  and  dark  corner  of  the  country. 
Their  names  are  usually  unknown,  hut  they  go  on 
multiplying  as  events  or  incidents  occur  to  which 
the  priests  can  give  a supernatural  interpretation. 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  189 


According  to  a leading  Hindu:  “Under  the 

name  of  Hinduism  there  still  exists  in  India  to-day 
a system  of  religion  which  embraces  all  the  religious 
thought  of  the  world.  It  stands  like  a huge  ban- 
yan tree,  spreading  its  far-reaching  branches  over 
hundreds  of  sects,  creeds,  and  denominations,  and 
covering  with  its  innumerable  leaves  all  forms  of 
worship,  the  dualistic,  qualified  non-dualistic,  and 
monistic  worship  of  the  One  Supreme  God,  the  wor- 
ship of  the  Incarnation  of  God,  and  also  hero-wor- 
ship, saint-worship,  symbol-worship,  ancestor-wor- 
ship, and  the  worship  of  departed  spirits.  It  is 
based  upon  the  grand  idea  of  universal  receptivity. 
It  receives  everything.” 

Professor  Max  Muller  says:  “No  phase  of  re- 
ligion, from  the  coarsest  superstition  to  the  most 
sublime  enlightenment,  is  unrepresented  in  that 
country.  ’ ’ 

A recent  census  returned  2,728,812  priests,  which 
is  an  average  of  one  for  every  seventy-two  mem- 
bers of  the  Hindu  faith,  and  it  is  believed  that,  al- 
together there  are  more  than  9,000,000  persons  in- 
cluding monks,  nuns,  ascetics,  fakirs,  sorcerers, 
chelas,  and  mendicants  or  various  kinds  of  attend- 
ants employed  about  the  temples,  who  are  de- 
pendent upon  the  public  for  support. 

This  multiplication  of  gods  and  the  swallowing 
up  of  all  sorts  and  kinds  of  religious  conceptions 
of  other  races  has  added  picturesqueness  but  little 
vitality  to  Hinduism. 

Buddhism  alone  has  been  able  to  assert  itself  as  a 
religious  faith  which  through  these  two  milleniums 
has  insisted  upon  a distinct  identity.  Yet  Bud- 
dhism’s great  power  has  been  achieved  not  in  the 


190  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


land  of  its  birth,  but  amongst  other  peoples  where 
it  numbers  millions  of  adherents.  After  ten  cen- 
turies of  conquest  in  India,  it  too  was  absorbed  or 
superseded  as  the  dominant  religion  in  India. 
Buddha  himself  was  added  to  the  personages  in  the 
Hindu  Pantheon,  as  the  ninth  incarnation  of 
Vishnu. 

Students  of  comparative  religions  are  repeatedly 
confronted  with  a likeness  between  Hinduism  and 
Christianity.  Some  of  the  deepest  and  most  poten- 
tial truths  find  common  ground  and  common  expres- 
sion in  these  two  religions. 

Yet  it  is  the  antipodal  character  of  Hindu  and 
Christian  ideals  rather  than  their  consonance,  which 
impresses  the  student  of  comparative  religions. 
The  Westerner  is  continually  puzzled  with  the  In- 
dian’s religious  attitude.  To  sympathize  with  it 
one  must  study  his  early  training,  his  traditional  in- 
heritances, and  his  endowments  of  spiritual  and 
religious  experiences  and  illusions. 

The  Indian’s  emphasis  is  entirely  divergent  from 
that  of  the  Western  religious  emphasis  as  regards 
Deity.  The  Hindu  sees  in  Brahm  or  the  Supreme 
Soul,  intelligence  idealized.  His  philosophy  aims 
“to  see  the  formless  Being  of  the  Deity,  in  the  re- 
gions of  pure  consciousness  beyond  the  veil  of 
thought.”  The  Christian  student  finds  in  God  per- 
fect Will.  To  the  Hindu,  God  is  supreme  wisdom, 
intelligence,  all  knowledge.  His  goal  is  Brahma- 
guana  (Divine  Wisdom).  “Emancipation  is  only 
the  perception  of  that  which  has  existed  from  eter- 
nity but  has  hitherto  been  concealed  from  us.”  To 
the  Christian,  on  the  other  hand,  God  is  Infinite 
Goodness.  To  the  Indian,  God  is  Divine  Wisdom 


Tlie  musicians  in  a Buddhist  funeral  procession  at  Mandalay.  Tile  body  is  beneath  the 

canopy  at  the  rear 


class  in  an  Oriental  college  in  Hyderabad 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  191 


far  away  and  vague.  To  the  Christian,  He  is  Love, 
near  and  “My  Father.” 

There  is  then  a difference  of  starting  points  in 
religious  ideals,  a difference  as  wide  as  that  which 
bridges  the  space  between  absolute  intelligence  and 
ethical  perfection,  and  this  difference  is  evident 
everywhere  in  the  intellectual  and  argumentative 
Indian  religion,  as  contrasted  with  the  Christian  re- 
ligion of  love  and  good  works. 

The  Hindu’s  fight  has  been  against  Ignorance, 
(“Eridia”),  that  blindness  of  the  mind  which  fails 
to  see  that  the  Supreme  Soul  and  the  self  are  identi- 
cal realities.  To  him  final  emancipation  arises 
when  these  two  are  absorbed  in  one.  Self-knowl- 
edge has  been  the  ideal  of  the  Indian  educated  man. 
Self-control,  on  the  other  hand,  has  been  the  su- 
preme ethic  leading  the  Christian  to  “sovereign 
power.”  Ignorance  is  evil  and  wisdom  is  grace  to 
the  Hindu.  To  the  Christian,  sin  is  evil  and  that 
obliquity  which  clouds  God’s  moral  and  religious 
beauty,  is  to  be  chiefly  abhorred.  To  know  God  is 
of  first  importance  to  the  Indian.  To  rebel  against 
God  in  the  heart  is  to  the  Christian  a greater  evil 
th.an  not  to  know  God  with  the  intelligence.  To  be 
transformed  into  the  image  of  God  of  righteousness 
is  Christianity’s  ideal.  To  realize  the  Absolute 
beyond  the  self  is  the  Hindu’s  ideal. 

Here  then  we  have  quite  a different  point  of 
view,  and  this  is  vital  and  critical  to  all  result.  The 
Indian  student  thinks,  argues,  and  meditates  in  his 
search  for  freedom  from  self.  The  Western  stu- 
dent acts,  decides,  and  regards  practical  religious 
values.  The  Christian  idea  of  religion  is  utilita- 
rian. It  must  be  serviceable  and  it  must  be  po- 


192  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tently  personal.  It  is  partially  expressed  at  least 
in  Mr.  Huxley’s  definition  of  tlie  value  of  true  edu- 
cation, namely — that  which  gives  a man  the  power 
“to  do  what  he  ought  to  do  when  he  ought  to  do  it, 
regardless  of  whether  he  feels  like  doing  it  or  not.” 
And  the  Western  religionist  also  adds  that  this  re- 
ligious good  must  be  in  accordance  with  the  will  of 
God — the  perfect  goodness,  the  righteous  Father 
who  dwells  not  in  any  far  away  Nirvana  but  even 
within  us : 

“Speak  to  Him  thou,  for  He  hears,  and  Spirit  with  Spirit 
can  meet — 

Closer  is  He  than  breathing,  and  nearer  than  hands  and 
feet.” 

Hindu  philosophy,  theology  and  metaphysics  are 
thus  divergently  dissimilar  to  Christian  thinking,  in 
their  initial  premises  and  emphases. 

The  Indian  is  immediately  affected  by  this  differ- 
ent attitude  in  religious  ideals.  Until  recently  he 
has  had  little  care  for  altruistic  enterprises.  His 
morality,  also,  is  a matter  of  small  moment  to  him. 
The  custom  of  his  land  has  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  hold  the  laws  of  social  chastity  of  small  signifi- 
cance. He  has  been  wont  to  laugh  at  any  attempt 
at  social  and  moral  reform.  No  meeting  for  the 
consideration  of  such  topics  as  social  evils  has  yet 
been  possible  or  largely  successful  among  Indians, 
since  they  disclaim  the  existence  of  anything  like 
purity  or  chastity  among  men.  In  short,  these 
facts  do  not  have  a place  in  their  religious  furniture 
or  ideals.  The  moral  consciousness  of  India  has 
never  been  deeply  touched.  An  old  Brahmin  in 
Calcutta  said  to  me:  “Is  ‘stir  the  conscience’  a 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  193 


right  use  of  English!”  Upon  receiving  an  affirma- 
tive reply,  he  said:  “This  is  India’s  great  need,  a 
stirring  of  conscience  for  the  sake  of  distinguishing 
between  right  and  wrong.” 

The  Indian’s  conception  of  sin  is  often  emascu- 
lated and  buried  underneath  huge  piles  of  cere- 
monial. It  has  usually  meant  superstitious  error 
caused  by  pollution,  or  a blindness  which  has  re- 
sulted from  ignorance.  The  idea  of  sin  in  India 
has  well-nigh  lost  its  tonic  of  moral  sensitiveness 
and  ethical  impulse.  It  is  difficult  to  convince  In- 
dians of  your  meaning  when  you  refer  to  such  sub- 
jects as  sensuality.  They  understand  perfectly 
ritualistic  malfeasance  but  moral  iniquity  has  little 
meaning  for  them. 

When  we  speak  of  Hinduism  or  Brakminism  as  a 
religion,  however,  it  is  only  a conventional  use  of 
a term,  because  it  is  not  a religion  in  the  sense  that 
we  are  accustomed  to  apply  that  word.  In  all  other 
creeds  there  is  an  element  of  ethics;  morality,  pur- 
ity, justice  and  faith  in  men,  but  none  of  these  quali- 
ties is  taught  by  the  Brahmins.  With  them  the  fear 
of  unseen  powers  and  the  desire  to  obtain  their  favor 
is  the  only  rule  of  life  and  the  only  maxim  taught 
to  the  people. 

There  are  signs  of  a new  attitude,  however,  an 
attitude  in  which  sin  will  consist  of  something  more 
than  an  intellectual  delusion  or  a ceremonial  irregu- 
larity. There  are  indications  that  moral  hideous- 
ness will  one  day  be  disassociated  with  culture  and 
education  in  India.  British  laws  and  social  reforms 
of  the  West  are  making  way  and  helping  to  rout  the 
pantheism  of  Vivekanada  which  consists  in  the  be- 
lief that  the  only  sin  of  which  man  is  capable  is  the 


194  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


sin  of  regarding  himself  as  a sinner.  At  no  distant 
date  such  a condition  in  relation  to  crime  is  hound 
to  arrive  among  educated  men  that  a murderer  will 
be  unable  to  say,  as  one  did  recently  in  India,  “It 
was  not  me  but  God  within  me  which  slew  the  man.” 

The  idea  of  incarnation  is  a common  ground,  but 
its  meaning  is  quite  contradictory.  To  the  Chris- 
tian, the  Incarnation  of  Jesus  means  perfect,  moral 
rectitude.  To  the  Hindu,  the  word  conveys  no  par- 
ticular moral  meaning.  The  “descents”  or  incar- 
nations of  Vishnu  are  in  the  first  place  those  of  the 
fish,  Sartoris,  and  the  boar,  and  here  morality  of 
course  is  not  a question  of  consideration.  While, 
furthermore,  the  gross  and  sensual  “Krishna,”  who 
is  the  popular  full  incarnation  of  Vishnu,  has  as 
little  influence  toward  perfect  morality  as  one  could 
imagine.  Vishnu  has  no  definite  spiritual  or  ethical 
significance.  To  compare  his  incarnation  with  the 
Christian  conception  is  a most  hopeless  undertak- 
ing. 

Furthermore,  the  Hindu  idea  is  of  a triumphant 
God  and  not  of  a suffering  God.  In  this  it  resem- 
bles the  Jewish  conception.  The  cross  is  a stum- 
bling-block. The  glory  of  the  Christian  incarnation 
resides  in  Jesus’  spotless  character,  his  cross,  and 
his  suffering  and  death.  The  Indian  does  not  thrill 
at  any  of  these  conceptions.  His  ideals  or  his  re- 
ligious heroes  have  always  walked  in  the  opposite 
direction. 

The  Indian  student  moreover,  has  been  taught 
from  earliest  infancy  that  the  Divine  is  the  one  and 
only  great  reality.  The  world  is  transient,  passing, 
a shadow,  a mirage,  a thing  to  be  abandoned  as  soon 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  195 


as  possible.  Tlie  body  is  but  the  poor  temporary 
casement  of  the  soul  partaking  of  the  general  un- 
reality of  the  world,  and  must,  therefore,  be  cruci- 
fied and  detested.  The  Indian  has  been  taught  to 
think  of  life  and  civilization  as  devices  to  make  men 
comfortable  until  they  can  escape  into  "the  Nirvana 
of  ultimate  Reality. 

There  has  been,  therefore,  little  or  no  significance 
in  history,  biography,  or  social  uplift.  The  man  of 
India  has  cared  little  about  political  leadership  or 
industrial  progress.  Even  morals  and  ethics  have 
been  considered  as  expedients  belonging  also  to  an 
unreal  and  passing  life,  associated  with  things  that 
must  speedily  break  up  and  vanish. 

Religion,  morality,  and  every  other  aspect  of  ordi- 
nary life  are  thus  hopelessly  secular.  Therefore, 
the  only  rational  conclusion  is — flee  from  the  world, 
from  time  and  matter,  from  man  and  civilization, 
from  morality  and  religion;  so  that  the  soul,  re- 
leased from  transmigration,  may  be  united  with  Re- 
ality. The  ascetic  is  the  only  saint. 

This  idea  of  a great  Real  God  dwelling  in  lonely 
reality,  diffused  throughout  the  unreal  world  has 
given  rise  to  Hindu  pantheism.  Each  divinity  of 
the  Hindu  circle  has  been,  as  it  were,  a rush-light  in 
the  darkness,  a glass  to  give  him  back  the  truth. 
And  this  pantheism  has  been  the  source  of  Indian 
philosophy  and  some  of  the  most  notable  literature 
of  the  world. 

Indeed,  we  cannot  understand  the  Indian  unless 
we  understand  his  religious  consciousness,  for  within 
him  and  upon  all  sides  of  him  we  discover  the  subtle 
influences  of  a great  religion  “a  deeply  considered 


196  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


and  a large  spaced  system,”  the  religion  of  Hindu- 
ism with  its  mighty  ambition  and  its  vast  accom- 
plishment. 

The  Indian  of  to-day  has  inherited  these  deep  ex- 
alted and  pervasive  religious  ideals  which  continue 
to  strongly  affect  his  whole  thinking;  in  fact  his 
attitude  toward  life  in  general.  No  knowledge  of 
the  Indian  can  be  at  all  complete  which  does  not  re- 
gard carefully  a faith  which  has  not  only  influenced 
India  by  its  rigid  asceticism  and  lofty  spiritual  con- 
ceptions, but  has  colored  the  religious  philosophy  of 
every  nation. 

His  conception  of  the  world  is  that  of  a make- 
shift. According  to  the  ancient  Hindu  philosophy, 
the  world  exists  only  to  furnish  an  embodiment  for 
the  soul.  It  is  simply  the  place  for  the  former  em- 
bodied lives  to  continue  their  evolution.  The  things 
that  befall  men  in  life,  both  good  or  bad,  are  to  the 
Hindu,  simply  the  rewards  or  the  punishments  for 
existence  of  evil  conduct  in  a past  incarnation.  The 
chief  characteristic  of  the  world,  in  the  mind  of  the 
orthodox  Hindu,  lies  in  its  retributive  function. 
Transmigration  is  the  answer  to  all  the  varied  for- 
tunes of  men.  This  world  process  of  undergoing 
birth  and  death  is  eternal.  There  are  a multitude 
of  worlds  as  well  as  a multitude  of  souls,  and  these 
go  through  consecutive  stages  of  life  and  death  as 
souls  do,  and  time  is  thus  divided  into  ages  styled 
“Kalpas.” 

However  we  may  disagree  with  this  conception 
of  the  world,  it  must  be  admitted  that  it  is  a lofty 
and  comprehensive  one.  We  here  have  the  problem 
of  world  justice  and  human  sorrow  explained  and 
united.  The  problem  of  good  and  evil  which  has 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  197 


interested  and  puzzled  mankind  is  here  given  at  least 
a dignified  explanation. 

The  influence  of  this  Hindu  idea  of  the  world 
which  the  Indian  has  inherited  is  manifest  in  the  na- 
ture and  attitude  of  the  educated  men  of  India.  The 
sense  of  the  transitoriness,  worthlessness  or  cheap- 
ness of  world  values  has  directly  affected  both  their 
thought  and  action.  The  ambitions  of  youth  have 
not  until  very  recently  been  cast  in  the  channels  of 
worldly  favor  or  worldly  aggrandizement.  His 
ideals  have  been  religious,  philosophical,  intellectual. 
Poverty  has  been  no  disgrace,  while  the  leadership 
of  political  or  social  world  movements  has  held  for 
him  small  recompense,  since  these  are  associated 
with  those  conditions  which  are  part  of  the  transient 
and  ephemeral  world. 

The  tourist  in  India  is  frequently  shocked  and 
disgusted  with  the  gross  sensuality  and  blatant 
mendicancy  of  the  Yogis,  or  holy  men,  who  frequent 
the  country  roads  and  especially  the  temples  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  sacred  rivers,  thriving  upon  the 
superstitions  of  the  poor.  These  men  are  quite  gen- 
erally idle,  lazy,  hypocritical,  dirty,  and  useless. 
They  form  a distinct  clog  upon  the  wheels  of  India ’s 
laboring  advance. 

Yet  while  these  priests,  and  especially  the  loath- 
some fakirs,  are  met  with  indifference,  often  scorned 
by  the  students  of  India,  these  same  students  see 
behind  these  representatives  of  religion  a great  and 
mighty  fact,  and  one  which  helps  to  shape  their 
thought  and  determine  their  decisions.  This  fact 
of  Hindu  asceticism,  especially  in  its  historical  ex- 
hibitions and  consequences,  has  been  breathed  into 
the  air  of  their  earlier  education.  Indeed,  one  finds 


198  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  TIIE  ORIENT 


that  the  two  epics  of  the  Upanishads  are  still  com- 
monly read  by  the  people  and  children  in  the  vil- 
lages, both  in  the  original  and  in  the  vernacular, 
much  as  the  Homeric  poems  were  read  by  the  peo- 
ple of  Greece. 

These  students  as  children  have  committed  to 
memory  and  believed  the  wild  tales  of  “Mahab- 
liarata”  and  the  miraculous  “Ramayana’’  and  the 
books  of  Buddhism  and  the  Jains,  which  tell  of  the 
exercises  of  these  ascetic  priests  and  heroes,  and 
the  wonder-working  of  their  mystical  and  powerful 
charms.  The  hideous  depravity  of  some  of  these 
tales  has  left  a mark  on  the  minds  and  habits  of 
India’s  young  men;  while  the  perfect  sincerity  and 
heroic  achievement  of  certain  of  the  ascetics  whom 
these  young  men  have  revered,  such  as  Gautama 
the  Buddha  and  Mahavira  the  Jain,  have  deeply, 
even  if  unconsciously  influenced  their  minds  in  be- 
half of  their  own  brand  of  religion.  Belief  in  these 
wonder  working  heroes  has  also  prejudiced  these 
educated  Indians  against  the  more  practical  and 
utilitarian  conceptions  of  religious  life  held  by  West- 
erners. 

That  is  to  say,  the  men  of  India  have  been  im- 
pressed with  the  reality  of  their  own  great  visual- 
ized religions.  They  have  felt  the  impulse  and  have 
been  stirred  to  the  depths  in  their  boyhood  by  be- 
holding their  countrymen  abandoning  all  that  was 
dear,  depriving  themselves  of  all  chances  of  self- 
gratification, literally  dying  to  themselves  for  the 
sake  of  a spiritual  ambition.  While  these  wonder 
and  are  impressed  by  the  self-renunciation  of  our 
missionaries  from  the  West,  they  are  not  without 
similar  examples  of  self-abnegation  wrought  by 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  199 


honest  devotees  to  their  own  nation’s  religious  prin- 
ciples, in  the  silence  of  nature,  far  from  the  haunts 
of  men.  The  influence  of  this  ascetic  idealism  upon 
the  minds  of  the  youth  of  India  is  fittingly  revealed 
in  the  words  of  one  who  has  spent  his  life  among 
India’s  young  men: 

“The  ascetic  ideal  is  that  a man  shall  give  up 
work,  home,  wife,  society,  civilization,  property, 
ordinary  food,  and  dress,  ornaments,  amusements, 
and  the  religion  of  home  and  the  temple,  shall  live 
in  the  forest,  dress  in  a skin,  a coat  of  bark,  or  in 
rags,  beg  his  food,  and  give  his  mind  to  thought  on 
God  alone.  He  must  practise  mental  exercises  so 
as  to  shut  out,  as  far  as  possible,  the  outer  world 
from  his  senses  and  thought.  He  must  harm  no 
living  thing  by  speech  or  act.  He  ought,  also  to 
subject  himself  to  torture  of  some  kind,  so  as  to  sub- 
jugate his  body  the  more  completely,  and  win  release 
more  speedily.” 

This  heroic,  religious  history,  living  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  Indians  through  the  influence  of  epic 
story,  hymn,  or  idea,  forms  the  background  upon 
which  new  educational  or  religious  impressions  must 
be  superimposed. 

But  the  evidences  found  commonly  among  think- 
ing men  of  India  point  toward  an  ever  increasing 
belief  in  one  God  who  rules  all.  The  shadowy  rea- 
sonings which  satisfied  the  ancient  centuries  have 
lost  their  power  to  convince  the  modern  Indian. 
Polytheism  and  idolatry  are  vanishing  forms  in  the 
minds  of  educated  India. 

Krishna  is  to  Hindu  students  the  Divine  Being 
and  is  considered  as  personal.  To-day  we  find  edu- 
cated Indians  saying  naturally,  “God  is  our  Heav- 


200  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


enly  Father.”  A student  who  talked  with  me  at 
Allahabad  spoke  of  idolatry  as  a concession  merely 
to  ignorance  and  to  untrained  minds.  The  Brahma 
and  Arya-Samaj  adherents  are  outspoken  against 
idol  worship  and  often  break  caste.  Even  the  auda- 
cious claims  of  Mrs.  Besant  and  the  followers  of 
Sankara’s  Vedantism,  give  idolatry  a place,  simply 
because  of  human  weakness.  Students  in  govern- 
ment schools  for  the  most  part,  regard  the  priests 
in  the  Benares  temples  as  a joke.  They  look  at 
them  somewhat  as  tourists  view  them,  as  more  or 
less  of  monstrosities,  interesting  as  fanatics  might 
be.  I watched  students  in  certain  services,  who 
seemed  to  be  attending  much  as  they  would  go  to 
spectacular  entertainments.  The  holy  men,  even, 
sit  upon  spike-beds  for  revenue  only.  The  golden 
temple  and  the  monkey  temple  of  Benares  are  only 
partially  supported  by  the  votive  offerings  of  the 
stupid,  worshiping  coolies.  Tourists,  who  are  met 
by  dirty  priests,  furnish  a goodly  proportion  of  the 
revenue  which  keeps  open  these  diminishing  signs 
of  Hindu  polytheism.  Forsooth,  the  failure  to  give 
large  fees  to  these  mercenaries  of  religion  calls 
down  upon  the  head  of  the  unsuspecting  trav- 
eler, blasphemy  more  earnest  than  the  devotion 
which  characterizes  the  exercises  of  the  sacred 
shrines. 

When  members  of  the  educated  classes  visit  these 
temples  to-day  it  is  much  like  the  yearly  visit  of  the 
Emperor  of  Japan  to  the  Temple  of  Heaven — to 
keep  up  appearances.  The  real  heart  and  life  of 
polytheism  is  already  dead  among  Indian  educated 
men. 

The  Hindu  gods,  Vishnu,  Siva,  Ganesa  (elephant- 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  201 


headed),  and  Kali,  are  doomed  to  pass,  and  this 
with  rapidity,  as  did  the  like  gods  of  Babylon  and 
Egypt,  of  Greece  and  of  Rome,  for  their  hold  upon 
reality  is  no  stronger  than  was  that  of  these  former 
deities. 

In  India,  however,  polytheism  is  being  swept  away 
by  what  Goethe  would  call  the  ‘ ‘ time  spirit.  ’ ’ Mod- 
ern thought,  and  social  activity,  the  interaction  of 
industrial  and  world  competition,  the  arousing  of 
educated  men  to  a sense  of  responsibility  for  gov- 
ernment and  for  the  new  India,  these  are  all  potent 
influences  in  the  demolition  of  these  century  old  su- 
perstitions. 

Does  this  mean  that  India  is  to  accept  Christian- 
ity? If  by  Christianity  we  mean  the  form. and  the 
method  of  the  Christian  religion,  known  and  prac- 
tised in  the  West,  one  must  believe  that  it  is  very 
doubtful ; even  if  ten  or  even  if  a hundred  times  the 
amount  of  missionary  effort  were  put  forth,  India 
would  not  thus  be  Westernized  religiously.  But  if 
we  ask  whether  the  spirit  of  Christianity  will  be  ab- 
sorbed and  adapted  eventually  to  Asiatic  needs, 
temperament  and  character,  I for  one,  sincerely  be- 
lieve that  it  will  be.  I am  not  sure  that  Christianity 
will  be  sufficiently  similar  in  its  outward  expression 
in  Asia  to  be  recognized  at  first  sight  by  the  Western 
Christian.  It  will  be,  and  it  should  be,  an  Oriental 
product  growing  out  of  the  rich  background  of  Ori- 
ental life  and  history.  There  will  be,  doubtless, 
many  caricatures  of  the  real  spirit  of  the  faith,  as 
well  as  of  its  method,  before  anything  like  a perfect 
Christianity  shall  be  evolved  in  Asia.  But  the  true 
Christian  who  believes  in  his  Bible  and  in  the  Chris- 
tian God,  and  also  in  the  Christian  history,  will  not 


202  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


be  skeptical  concerning  the  ability  of  bis  faith  to 
adjust  itself  to  the  Asiatic. 

One  of  the  first  and  ever-present  drawbacks  in 
Christianizing  Asia,  has  been  our  Western  fear  of 
allowing  Christianity  to  develop  Orientally  rather 
than  Occidentally.  What  is  the  quickest  way  to 
modernize  India?  I asked  of  an  English  Official. 
He  answered,  “To  make  the  educated  men  English 
gentlemen.”  Many  a missionary  made  the  same 
mistake,  and  endeavoring  to  Christianize  India, 
placed  before  his  eyes  the  ideal  “to  make  the  Ori- 
ental an  English  or  an  American  Christian.”  One 
is  glad  to  see  in  the  present-day  missionary  move- 
ments in  the  East,  the  growing  tendency  to  empha- 
size an  indigenous  Christian  religion.  There  is  still 
much  difficulty  to  be  overcome,  however,  much  dog- 
matic prejudice  to  be  eradicated,  and  much  training 
of  native  leaders  to  be  accomplished  before  great 
sweeping  religious  changes  will  be  brought  about. 
There  is  need,  for  example,  in  nearly  every  Asiatic 
country  of  the  establishment  of  native  universities 
led  and  taught  by  native  Christians,  and  not  by 
Westerners,  a type  of  Christian  El  Azhars  devoid 
of  the  obscurantism  of  the  Moslem  University  at 
Cairo.  In  the  last  analysis  it  is  the  Oriental  and 
not  the  Occidental  who  must  Christianize  the  Orient ; 
the  Westerner  can  bring  the  “Good  News,”  but  the 
Easterner  must  absorb  and  translate  it  into  his  own 
language,  habits,  and  civilization. 

Those  who  have  not  traveled  among  or  studied  the 
Asiatic  can  hardly  appreciate  the  problems  that  have 
confronted  and  still  are  confronting  the  Christian 
missionaries  from  the  West.  I venture  to  say  that 
there  is  no  more  devoted  class  of  persons  at  work 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  203 


anywhere  in  the  world  than  are  these  missionaries  of 
Asia.  Those  who  deride  or  harshly  criticize  them, 
have  usually  not  seen  sufficient  number  of  them  to 
form  a just  opinion,  or  they  have  taken  an  excep- 
tional poor  sample  of  the  missionary  product,  as  a 
proof  for  former  prejudice. 

I met  a certain  American  gentleman  upon  a 
steamer  in  the  southern  seas,  who  made  bold  to  tell 
me  that  he  had  given  his  last  contribution  to  Chris- 
tian missions  in  India.  I began  asking  him  what 
mission  stations  he  had  really  visited,  and  from  what 
particular  nationalities  of  missionary  workers  he 
had  drawn  his  unfavorable  conclusions.  I soon  dis- 
covered that  he  had  not  really  gone  out  of  his  way 
to  visit  a single  representative  missionary  college, 
hostel,  or  rural  station,  but  based  his  inferences 
upon  the  second  hand  and  often  biased  opinions  of 
certain  officials  or  fellow  tourists  as  ignorant  as 
himself  regarding  the  eighty  or  more  years  of  mis- 
sionary effort  and  influence  among  India’s  millions. 
The  witness  of  educational  and  medical  missions 
throughout  the  Orient  from  Egypt  to  Japan,  quite 
apart  from  any  other  vision  of  accomplishment,  give 
Christian  missions  the  divine  right  of  existence  in 
the  Orient.  Add  to  this  the  Christian  influence  upon 
these  Asiatic  civilizations,  an  influence  impossible 
of  calculating  in  any  statistical  table  of  converts, 
and  you  have  three  great  chapters  of  missionary 
victories  in  Asia. 

The  two  chief  difficulties  before  the  Christian  mis- 
sions reside  first  of  all  in  that  peculiar  tendency  of 
the  Asiatic  mind  to  be  intellectually  convinced  with- 
out necessarily  acting  upon  his  conviction,  and  sec- 
ondly, in  the  great  barrier  of  caste  influence  which 


204  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


still  makes  public  confession  of  Christianity  another 
word  for  “outcast”  in  Indian  society.  This  first 
characteristic  of  the  Hindu  to  absorb  mentally 
Christianity  without  actively  participating  in  its 
public  expression,  Mark  Twain  has  humorously  de- 
picted in  the  answer  of  his  Indian  servant,  concern- 
ing his  religion : 

Yes,  he  very  good.  Christian  god  very  good;  Hindoo 
god  very  good,  too.  Two  million  Hindoo  god,  one  Chris- 
tian god — make  two  million  and  one.  All  mine;  two  mil- 
lion and  one  god.  I got  a plenty.  Sometime  I pray  all 
time  at  those,  keep  it  up,  go  all  time  very  day;  give  some- 
thing at  shrine,  all  good  for  me,  make  me  better  man ; good 
for  me,  good  for  my  family,  dam  good. 

But  even  a greater  antagonist  to  the  advance  to 
Christianity  is  the  iron  rule  of  caste.  For  a con- 
vert to  give  up  caste  and  openly  profess  the  West- 
erner’s faith,  means  that  he  must  give  up  his  chief 
authority  in  the  home  over  wife  and  children,  the 
majority  of  his  daily  habits,  the  laws  and  rules  gov- 
erning his  eating,  drinking,  and  general  attitude 
toward  men  as  well  as  women.  I shall  not  forget  a 
pathetic  talk  which  I had  with  a Brahmin  in  the  city 
of  Madras.  As  far  as  his  belief  was  concerned,  he 
was  evidently  a Christian.  “I  read  my  Bible 
daily,”  said  he,  “and  with  great  profit.  Occasion- 
ally I attend  the  Christian  church  and  in  my  heart 
I worship  the  Christian’s  God.  But,”  said  he, 
“should  I come  out  and  publicly  profess  Christian- 
ity, I could  no  longer  abide  under  my  own  roof.  I 
should  be  obliged  to  be  untrue  to  my  family  obliga- 
tions, and  I should  lose  every  bit  of  influence  I have 
in  the  community  where  I have  lived  my  entire  life. 


RELIGIOUS  TRANSFORMATION  205 


Could  you  advise  me  to  accept  Christianity  publicly 
upon  such  terms?” 

These  problems  are,  indeed,  not  easily  solved  and 
Asiatic  religions  like  Mohammedanism  and  Bud- 
dhism which  allow  all  their  converts  to  remain 
Asiatics,  furnish  a suggestive  example  to  us  as 
Western  Christians  who  would  give  the  benefits  and 
the  enlightenment  of  Christianity  to  the  Oriental 
world.  Here,  as  in  other  things  Oriental,  to  attempt 
to  force  progress  unduly,  is  unwise.  Western  mil- 
lions cannot  convert  Asiatics  at  a sweep;  Western 
buildings  and  Western  methods  and  Western  men 
may  be  truly  effective  only  as  they  are  incorporated 
and  borne  out  upon  a great  natural  tide  of  Oriental 
desire  and  progress.  Much  water  must  flow  under 
the  bridge  before  the  Orient  becomes  truly  Chris- 
tian. Imperfect  Christianity,  as  in  the  days  of  Con- 
stantine, will  precede  the  finer  product  of  later 
generations ; and  after  all,  it  is  not  the  name,  hut  the 
spirit  and  the  values  thereof,  which  are  most  im- 
portant. We  can  and  we  must  trust  the  Orient  to 
reshape  its  religion  and  to  utilize  the  fine  mission- 
ary inspiration,  the  wealth  of  experience  and  the  de- 
voted zeal  of  the  Occident  in  finding  her  way  to  God. 

In  this  Pilgrim’s  Progress  of  religion,  may  we  not 
hope  and  confidently  believe  that  the  spiritual 
minded  Easterner  carrying  his  own  burden  along 
his  own  Oriental  way,  may  find  here  and  there  a new 
star  to  guide,  a new  light  to  gladden  his  own  as  well 
as  his  Western  brother’s  feet  to  the  City  Beauti- 
ful? 


XIV 


Romantic  and  Buddhist  Burma 

EAST  and  south  from  Assam,  through  an  impas- 
sable tangle  of  forests,  isolated  by  massive 
mountains  from  eastern  India  and  geographically 
a patch  of  China,  there  lies  a land  of  pagodas  and 
golden  palaces,  a land  whose  religion  is  the  worship 
of  the  Lord  Buddha  and  whose  national  history  is  a 
pure  romance. 

It  is  a small  country  as  Asiatic  countries  go,  this 
Burman  land — hut  from  its  forest-laden  mountains 
in  the  north,  cut  by  rushing  streams  and  picturesque 
valleys  reminding  one  of  the  ‘‘Algerian  Switzer- 
land ’ ’ in  Kabylia,  to  the  rice  deltas  lying  in  the  sun 
upon  the  broad,  fertile  bosom  of  the  Irrawady,  in 
the  south,  the  Nile  country  of  Asia — there  dwells 
a distinct  race  of  men.  Like  the  Chinese  and  more 
especially  like  the  Koreans  in  physiognomy,  are 
these  people — Indo-Chinese  in  fact,  yet  totally  un- 
like the  Far  East  in  mysticism  and  national  patriot- 
ism; East  Indians  in  superstition,  yet  free  as 
America  in  their  treatment  of  women;  pleasure-lov- 
ing and  jealous  of  honor  as  the  Frenchmen,  yet 
seriously,  blindly,  and  religiously  conservative  as 
were  the  Dutch  puritans. 

I remember  as  a lad  reading  the  life  of  Adoniram 
Judson  written  by  his  noble  son,  a Baptist  clergy- 
man in  New  York  City,  in  which  I recall  what 

seemed  to  me  then  the  most  puzzling  and  remark- 

206 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  207 


able  fact,  of  a great  missionary  spending  a life-time 
of  effort  in  a small  country  without  seeing  in  his 
own  life-time,  scarcely  a single  person  accept  his 
faith.  And,  though  this  vigorous  and  persistent 
pioneer-missionary’s  religion,  since  his  death,  has 
gathered  to  itself  many  adherents  in  Burma,  I had 
always  been  curious  to  know  what  it  was  in  this 
nation  that  so  effectually  held  its  own  against  such 
unalloyed  zeal. 

If  I have  visited  and  studied  this  nation  cor- 
rectly, one  characteristic  predominating  over  many 
others,  singles  it  out  in  startling  particularity  and 
makes  it  unlike  any  Indian  province;  it  is  the  char- 
acteristic passion  of  patriotism,  bred  no  doubt  by 
Burma’s  geographical  isolation  and  generously  fed 
by  a towering  and  racial,  religious  pride. 

The  secret  of  the  Burmese  is  read  in  two  sets  of 
literature,  one  national,  the  other  religious ; the 
Chronicle  of  the  Burman  kings  and  the  precepts  of 
the  Lord  Buddha.  The  national  literature  is  a kind 
of  epic,  the  Maha  Yazawin,  over  whose  ballad  pages 
the  light  of  Aladdin’s  lamp  has  been  thrown,  turn- 
ing every  Burmese  defeat  into  a Burmese  victory 
and  resolving  every  national  reverse  into  a volun- 
tary act  of  royal  clemency.  No  Eric  Brighteyes  ever 
converted  such  impregnable  tasks  into  a playful 
pastime  as  did  the  Burmese  kings,  according  to 
these  national,  fabled  Chronicles,  which  have  influ- 
enced deeply  and  permanently  the  Burmese  char- 
acter. 

Here  we  find  the  astonishing  historical  intelli- 
gence that  English  overlords  ruled  in  Burma  only 
through  the  gracious  favor  of  King  Bagyidaw,  who, 
strict  follower  of  Buddha,  sheathed  his  sword  be- 


208  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


fore  tlie  rush  of  Western  usurpers,  saying  in  the 
words  of  the  great  Gautama : 

All  can  take  life  but  who  can  give  it  back? 

As  an  arch  example  of  unadulterated  muzzling 
of  the  press,  notice  the  following  account  of  the  rea- 
sons of  national  defeat  given  by  the  Burmese 
chronicler  in  this  “national  book  of  history”: 

The  kalabyu,  the  white  strangers  from  the  west,  fastened 
a quarrel  upon  the  Lord  of  the  Golden  Palace.  They 
landed  at  Rangoon,  took  that  place  and  Prome,  and  were 
permitted  to  advance  as  far  as  Yandabo ; for  the  king,  from 
motives  of  piety  and  regard  to  life,  made  no  effort  what- 
ever to  oppose  them.  The  strangers  had  spent  vast  sums 
of  money  on  the  enterprise ; and  by  the  time  they  reached 
Yandabo  their  resources  were  exhausted;  and  they  were 
in  great  distress.  They  petitioned  the  king,  vTho,  of  his 
clemency  and  generosity,  sent  them  large  sums  of  money  to 
pay  their  expenses  back,  and  ordered  them  out  of  the 
country. 

One  can  hardly  wonder  that  English  directness 
and  practicality  were  bewildered  by  the  attitude  of 
King  Mindon,  who  after  the  second  Burmese  war  in 
1852-53,  would  not  formally  cede  by  treaty  the 
Province  of  Pegu,  which  was  annexed  by  the  vic- 
torious British,  saying  loftily:  “Let  them  (the 

English)  stay  there;  I cannot  turn  them  out,  but  I 
will  not  be  written  down  as  the  King  that  gave  up 
Rangoon.  ’ ’ 

“A  treaty  with  a man  like  that,”  said  Lord  Dal- 
housie,  “is  useless.” 

Such  striking  instances  of  blind  patriotism  and 
such  premeditated  attempts  to  delude  the  people  by 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  209 


courtly  fiction,  are  probably  not  on  record  else- 
where. 

A popular  custom  of  showing  indignity  to  for- 
eigners and  elevating  the  glory  of  the  Golden  Feet, 
was  in  keeping  the  English  envoys  waiting  for  hours 
and  sometimes  for  days,  at  the  gates  of  the  royal 
palace.  When  these  representatives  of  other  na- 
tions came  into  the  presence  of  Burmese  majesty, 
they  were  enjoined  first  to  bow  three  times  to  the 
building  when  entering  the  outer  gates,  then  when 
half  way  across  the  Esplanade,  they  must  again  bow 
humbly  three  times  and  when  fifteen  yards  distant 
from  the  king,  they  were  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
regulation  of  another  set  of  profound  bows.  Sir 
Doughlas  Forsyth  in  1874,  like  all  envoys  to 
Burmese  royalty,  had  to  enter  the  royal  presence 
in  his  stocking  feet  and  was  kept  sitting  cross- 
legged  on  the  floor  so  long  in  a cramped  position 
that  he  was  obliged  to  have  the  court  assistants  as- 
sist him  to  his  feet. 

We  are  told  by  that  detailed  historian  of  Burmese 
customs,  Shway  Yoe,  how  King  Mintayagyi,  upon 
hearing  that  Colonel  Symes  was  coming  to  see  him, 
immediately  started  upon  a long  journey  to  Mingon 
whither  the  Colonel  promptly  followed  him,  think- 
ing that  there  he  would  be  able  to  secure  audience 
with  his  Majesty  without  the  complex  and  varie- 
gated ceremonials  required  at  the  palace. 

In  this  idea  the  envoy  was  greatly  mistaken  in 
the  Burmese  character.  When  he  arrived  at  Min- 
gon, he  was  directed  by  the  King’s  officials  to  take 
up  his  residence  on  an  island  in  the  middle  of  the 
river.  Thus  beleaguered  in  a most  barren  and  un- 
desirable spot,  which  the  envoy  found  was  shunned 


210  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


by  all  Burmese  as  a place  polluted,  since  here  dead 
bodies  were  burned  and  sordid  criminals  executed, 
be  was  made  to  wait  forty  days  during  all  of  which 
time  not  the  slightest  attention  was  paid  to  him 
by  either  the  King  or  his  court. 

When  it  is  realized  that  such  national  Chronicles, 
highly  colored  to  aggravate  national  pride,  have 
been  for  generations,  with  the  exception  of  Burmese 
plays,  the  sole  literature  of  this  people,  we  are  not 
surprised  that  one  historian  has  likened  the  old- 
time  Burman  to  the  Centennial  Yankee: 

Breathes  there  a Yank,  so  mean,  so  small 
Who  never  says,  “Wal  now,  by  Gaul, 

I reckon  since  old  Adam’s  fall 
There’s  never  growed  on  this  ’ere  ball 
A nation  so  all-tired  tall 
As  we  Centennial  Yankees.” 

It  is  only  through  the  forced  necessity  of  Bur- 
mans  to  recognize  Western  modernization  as  it  is 
now  flowing  into  this  isolated  land  through  the  new 
Government  schools,  displacing  the  monastery 
schools  of  the  yellow-robed  priests,  and  in  the  trail 
of  Chinese,  East  Indians,  Jews  and  Western  oil  and 
rubber-kings,  that  Burma  shows  signs  of  rising  out 
of  her  historic,  national  delusions.  Like  other  Ori- 
ental peoples,  she  is  becoming  startled  by  the  spec- 
tacle of  advancing  trade.  Business-like  energy 
which  for  centuries  has  been  lacking  in  Burma, 
the  women  rather  than  the  men  being  the  shop- 
keepers and  workers,  is  seen.  Even  the  pleasure- 
loving  comedy  and  contentment  of  a race  is  now 
stirred  by  the  competitive  time-spirit  of  a twentieth 
century  world.  In  this  conflict  between  the  old  and 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  211 


the  new  to  which  she,  with  other  Oriental  nations 
must  address  herself,  Burma  has  the  advantage 
over  well-nigh  every  Eastern  country  in  the  heredi- 
tary freedom  of  her  women,  since  here  there  are 
no  veils  and  no  purdahs,  no  forced  marriages,  and 
comparatively  little  of  that  domestic  degradation 
which  has  hung  like  a millstone  around  the  neck  of 
myriads  of  Moslem  and  Hindu  peoples. 

Burma,  furthermore,  in  the  richness  of  her  agri- 
cultural possibilities,  in  her  mineral  supply,  as  truly 
as  in  her  freedom-loving  atmosphere,  is  a land  of 
promise.  Here  is  a land  with  an  area  of  237,000 
square  miles,  if  one  includes  the  Shan  Provinces, 
holding  a population  of  11,000,000.  In  the  number 
of  her  people  she  is  almost  identical  with  Egypt,  and 
she  is  as  devoted  to  Buddhism,  as  Egypt  is  allied 
with  the  religion  of  the  Prophet  Mahomet.  Only 
about  one-fifth  of  the  soil  of  Burma  is  now  under 
agricultural  cultivation,  and  when  it  is  realized  that 
almost  anything  will  grow  beneath  her  tropical  sun, 
the  promise  of  her  future  in  the  land  can  be  appre- 
ciated. 

Burma  is  also  rich  in  deposits  of  petroleum.  I 
found  that  more  than  four  hundred  Americans  re- 
sided in  Burma  working  in  connection  with  the  local 
oil  companies. 

Her  mineral  products  are  rich  and  various ; 
platinum,  tin,  gold  and  silver,  and  a considerable 
wealth  in  wolfram,  that  mineral  which  is  used  in 
the  filaments  of  electric  lights  and  also  in  the  proc- 
esses of  hardening  steel.  I visited  also  rubber 
plantations  which  were  presided  over  by  Westerners 
who  looked  forward  to  a great  future  in  rubber. 
One  finds  to-day  more  than  300.000  people  in  the 


212  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


City  of  Rangoon,  and  the  air  of  the  town  reminds 
one  of  beginnings  and  possibilities  both  in  commer- 
cial and  industrial  undertakings. 

The  influence  of  Englishmen  is  naturally  predomi- 
nant in  government,  school,  and  business.  The 
English  have  controlled  lower  Burma  since  1826, 
and  have  held  sway  in  upper  Burma  since  the  year 
1880,  when  King  Thebaw,  with  his  atrocities  and  ec- 
centricities, lost  his  golden  throne. 

An  outstanding  Burmese  problem  to-day  is  that 
of  labor.  Life  to  the  Burman,  as  to  the  Indian,  has 
been  a comparatively  easy  one.  The  sea  has  fur- 
nished his  food,  and  the  climate  has  relieved  him  of 
the  expense  of  clothing,  while  manual  labor  has  been 
and  is  being  accomplished  for  him  by  Chinese, 
Hindus,  women,  and  elephants.  The  Burmese  man 
is  only  just  beginning  to  feel  the  thirst  for  gold  and 
material  acquirements.  First  of  all  he  must  learn 
to  work.  It  will  he  no  small  task  for  a people  who 
have  inherited  an  easy-going,  pleasure-loving  dis- 
position, spending  their  years  in  joyousness  and  a 
blaze  of  color  to  forget  it  suddenly,  in  order  to  ap- 
ply themselves  to  the  rigorous  competitive  demand 
of  economic  modernization.  Burma  for  a long  time 
will  be 

“On  the  road  to  Mandalay 
Where  the  flying  fishes  play” 

and  only  in  the  alembic  of  time  and  forced  necessity 
can  she  be  expected  to  change  her  traditional  in- 
ertia into  constructive  and  selective  action. 

On  the  other  hand,  Burma  must  carry  in  her 
march  toward  progress  a heritage  of  superstition 
great  enough  to  make  a nation  of  animists  if  they 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  213 


were  not  nominally  Buddhists.  It  is,  indeed,  with 
Burma  as  with  other  Oriental  populations,  a ques- 
tion of  religious  reform  which  is  bound  to  determine 
the  future  social,  industrial,  and  political  status  of 
the  nation.  Burma  shares  with  Ceylon,  Thibet  and 
with  large  sections  of  China  and  Japan,  the  distinc- 
tion of  the  followers  of  Buddhism  whose  literature 
and  practise  quite  as  strongly  as  her  national  his- 
tory and  pride  grip  the  consciousness  of  her  people. 

As  in  every  other  faith,  there  is  a wide  chasm  of 
difference  between  its  books  of  theory  and  its  prac- 
tical exemplification  in  life.  One  who  would  secure 
enlightenment  as  to  present  and  future  possibilities, 
must  engage  in  two  kinds  of  study.  He  must  first 
discover  how  a religion  becomes  a reality  in  the 
every  day  life  of  a people,  and  secondly,  he  must 
try  through  the  help  of  a larger  world-knowledge 
to  see  how  this  consistency  between  principle  and 
practise  compares  with  that  of  other  nations.  It 
is  not  difficult  for  a Westerner  to  write  books  upon 
the  weakness  and  even  upon  the  wreckage  of  Ori- 
ental faiths  from  the  Western  point  of  view,  and 
especially  if  he  loses  sight  of  the  comparative  re- 
lations of  his  own  faith  to  his  own  works.  Such 
treatises,  however,  are  no  more  valuable  as  contri- 
butions to  correct  perspective  than  many  of  the 
vitriolic  tirades  of  the  Moslem  press  against  the 
Copts  in  Cairo,  or  the  one-sided  apologetics  of  Ben- 
gali Hindus  who  still  hold  it  anathema  to  cross  ‘ ‘ the 
dark  water”  separating  them  from  a visible  knowl- 
edge of  the  success  or  failure  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion. To  modernize  the  Orient  or  to  Orientalize  the 
Occident  is  not,  after  all,  the  great  question.  It  is 
rather  to  find  out  through  sympathy,  and  if  pos- 


214  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


sible  through,  unbiased  comparison,  the  really  beau- 
tiful and  the  really  workable  tenets  of  faith  as  these 
are  capable  of  interpreting  the  soul  in  great  mod- 
ern action. 

I have  tried  in  visiting  Burma,  as  in  studies  in 
other  Eastern  countries,  to  find  out  what  religion 
really  meant  to  the  native  rather  than  what  his 
type  of  religion  might  mean  to  me.  The  difficulty 
of  such  a task  is  ostensible,  but  its  attempt  and  its 
fascination  are  obviously  worth  while. 

In  Burma  as  in  the  East  generally,  religion  is  not 
a matter  for  the  side  shows,  it  is  the  chief  per- 
formance in  the  main  tent.  As  in  Germany,  every 
man  must  prove  his  loyalty  to  the  national  Father- 
land  by  at  least  one  year’s  service  in  the  army, 
similarly  in  Burma,  every  youth,  for  a certain  time, 
must  don  the  yellow  robe  of  priesthood  as  an  ac- 
ceptance of  loyalty  to  the  religious  Lord  Buddha. 
To  the  Burman,  the  monastery  school,  guided  by  the 
Buddhist  priest,  has  for  generations  been  the  means 
of  education,  the  young  Buddhist  boy  entering  these 
schools  at  the  age  of  eight  or  nine  years.  One  of 
the  most  picturesque  and  impressive  first  sights  of 
the  traveler  who  is  wise  enough  to  rise  early,  is  the 
spectacle  of  the  yellow-robed  priests  attended  by 
their  chelas  or  pupils,  going  from  house  to  house 
with  their  begging  bowls  seeking  their  daily  rice. 
The  priests,  or  Pongyis,  as  they  are  generally  spoken 
of,  are  forbidden  by  their  religion  to  receive  money, 
not  even  are  they  allowed  to  touch  it  with  their 
hands,  lest  something  of  their  religious  retiracy 
from  the  material  world  should  be  polluted. 

While  at  Mandalay,  the  city  of  700  temples,  I made 
a special  point  of  visiting  a large  number  of  mon- 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  215 


astery  schools  and  was  particularly  impressed  with 
the  complaining  attitude  of  the  priests  regarding 
the  decreasing  support  afforded  them  by  the  people. 
The  environment  of  many  of  these  schools  was 
touching  in  its  abject  poverty  and  belated  methods. 
While  I fully  realized  that  these  pedagogues  were, 
as  a rule,  ignorant  men  and  were  the  teachers  of 
comparatively  ignorant  people,  the  sordidness  of  it 
all,  not  unlike  the  Moslem  Kuttabs  in  the  rural  sec- 
tion of  the  Nile  country,  was  depressing.  Through 
my  interpreter  I asked  one  of  these  priests  who  was 
busy  over  his  rice-pot,  if  he  would  be  willing  to  part 
with  one  of  the  implements,  a large  sized  knife 
somewhat  in  the  form  of  a hatchet,  which  is  sup- 
posed to  be  one  of  the  special  sacred  prerogatives 
of  his  priestly  function.  He  greeted  this  suggestion 
with  a mild  look  of  shocked  contempt,  but  when  I 
left  his  rickety  thatched  house,  one  of  his  attendants 
came  running  after  me  with  the  aforesaid  imple- 
ment saying  to  my  interpreter,  that  while  the  priest 
was  not  allowed  to  part  with  this  sacred  badge  of 
his  calling,  and  of  course  could  not  accept  or  touch 
money,  he,  his  attending  chela,  would  give  me  the 
knife  in  payment  of  a rupee.  This  Buddhist 
acolyte  received  my  money  in  a large  red  handker- 
chief which  he  had  spread  over  his  hand  in  order 
that  he  might  not  receive  the  ceremonial  contamina- 
tion of  the  foreigner’s  silver.  What  he  did  with 
this  money  as  he  returned  to  his  chief  of  priests, 
might  be  a matter  of  natural  conjecture.  The  in- 
cident, however,  furnishes  a sign,  not  simply  of  the 
decaying  standards  of  Buddhist  ethics  and  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  priests  of  this  order,  but  it  also  dem- 
onstrates the  dying  confidence  of  a people  in  a reli- 


216  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


gious  expression  and  a clergy  which  they  are  more 
and  more  loath  to  adequately  support. 

I was  impressed  by  the  statement  of  a far-sighted 
Orientalist  who  said:  “Unless  her  priests  reform, 

Buddhism  is  doomed.” 

In  other  cities  and  towns,  however,  I met  and 
talked  with  many  Buddhists  both  men  and  women 
whose  intelligent  devotion  to  their  faith  lifted  them 
as  high  above  these  mendicant  orders  of  the  yellow 
robe,  as  the  educated  Brahman  Inspector  of  Educa- 
tion, who  was  my  host  in  Benares  rises  above  the 
superstitious  worshiper  in  the  monkey  temple  on 
the  Ganges. 

One  highly  educated  woman  of  the  Buddhist  per- 
suasion in  Rangoon  especially,  impressed  me  with 
her  serious  manner  of  piercing  through  a thousand 
superstitious  ceremonials  to  that,  which  was  to  her 
a real  incentive  to  holy  living. 

“We  must  get  back  to  the  great  Buddha,”  said 
she ; “it  is  the  teachings  of  our  great  religious  leader 
which  we  follow.  The  people  who  bow  down  to  the 
dirty  priests  on  the  roadside  are  simply  paying 
homage  to  the  yellow  robe.  The  priest  himself  is 
a negligible  quantity,  merely  an  objective  reminder 
of  the  precepts  and  the  surrendered  life  of  the  great 
Gautama.  Ignorance  is  our  fatal  weakness  in 
Burma  and  knowledge  is  the  hand  by  which  Bud- 
dhism reaches  out  to  universal  being.” 

I was  also  struck  in  Burma  as  in  Japan  with  the 
humanizing  influence  of  Buddhism  in  its  relation 
to  the  laws  of  kindness,  the  care  and  the  sacredness 
of  all  life,  and  the  Buddhist  high  devotion  to  Beauty. 
A convert  to  Christianity  from  Buddhism  thus  de- 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  217 


scribes  the  attitude  and  the  effect  of  these  early 
teachings  in  Buddha-land: 

My  parents  were  prominent  Buddhists,  my  father  being 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  temples — that  is  to  say,  a man- 
ager and  controller  of  finances,  for  the  priests  touch  no 
money  themselves.  Every  full-moon  day  I used  to  go  with 
my  parents  to  the  temple,  and  I loved  to  go  because  my 
mind  was  filled  with  the  charm  of  Buddha’s  teaching.  I 
thought  there  could  be  nothing  sweeter  in  all  the  ideas  of 
men  than  Buddha’s  noble  teaching  about  Kindness. 
“There  is  great  virtue  in  Kindness.”  “The  greatest 
power  is  Kindness.”  “Kindness  to  man  and  animal.”  I 
worshiped  in  common  with  all  Buddhists,  but  very  de- 
votedly because  my  heart  was  so  deeply  touched  by  this 
doctrine  of  Kindness,  the  Trinity  of  my  religion — Buddha, 
his  Teaching,  and  his  Disciples.  I thoroughly,  almost  pas- 
sionately, believed  the  beautiful  doctrines,  and  like  other 
Buddhists  would  worship  even  an  immoral  priest  because 
he  wore  the  robe  that  Buddha  wore. 

We  are  told  by  Buddhist  scholars  that  many  of 
the  incomprehensible  problems  of  their  faith  are 
intentionally  surrounded  with  the  utmost  possible 
uncertainty  of  expression,  since  it  is  through  knowl- 
edge and  thought  as  well  as  by  means  of  the  sum  of 
a man’s  actions  that  the  soul  is  free  through  its 
endless  transmigrations  from  all  contagion  with 
ambition,  passion,  incontinence  and  the  desire  for 
wealth  in  the  world.  It  is  not  difficult  for  a West- 
erner, wallowing  in  the  books  of  Buddhist  philos- 
ophy, to  accept  this  statement  as  veritable  fact. 
After  one  has  read  and  studied  for  a certain  length 
of  time  the  multifold  Buddhist  ideas  regarding  the 
thirty-one  seats  of  the  world,  the  twenty  superior 


218  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


heavens,  the  twenty-seven  Buddhas  before  Lord 
Gautama,  the  five  great  precepts,  the  eight  great 
chambers  of  Hell,  each  surrounded  by  sixteen  little 
hells,  the  grades  in  the  state  of  animals,  the  worship 
at  the  Pagodas,  the  six  blissful  seats  of  heaven 
filled  with  the  tinkling  of  gold  and  silver  bells  and 
intoxicating  music,  together  with  a thousand  injunc- 
tions concerning  transientness,  incarnation,  perfect 
fixity,  the  extinction  of  Kan,  the  gradations  of  mer- 
its and  demerits  and  the  entire  hundred  and  twenty 
volitions  and  desires,  one  and  all  leading  up  through 
the  millions  of  years  of  extinctions  and  existences 
to  the  blissful,  unending  joys  of  Neban  or  Nirvana, 
where  the  great  silence  lives  and  “where  seeking 
nothing  they  gained  all”;  when  one  has  added  to 
these  complexities  the  interminable  subjects  of  study 
relative  to  monasteries  and 

That  noble  order  of  the  yellow  robe 
"Which  to  this  day  standeth  to  help  the  world, 

and  when  with  the  genuine  order  of  Buddhists  he 
includes  the  investigation  of  the  schismatics,  which 
is  a subject  almost  as  impregnable  as  the  castes  of 
India,  one  may  well  settle  back  upon  the  thought 
expressed  by  the  devoted  Buddhist  in  Rangoon  that 
ignorance  is  always  the  chief  hinderance  in  the  at- 
tempt of  the  individual  to  rise  out  of  pain,  vanity 
and  temporalities  into  that  far-distant  and  sacred 
calm  of  lifeless,  timeless  bliss. 

‘ ‘ The  books  say  well,  my  Brothers ! each  man ’s  life 
The  outcome  of  his  former  living  is, 

The  bygone  wrongs  bring  forth  sorrows  and  woes, 

The  bygone  right  breeds  bliss.” 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  219 


It  is  indeed  difficult  to  transport  oneself  out  of 
the  air  of  the  vulgar,  sight-seeing  day,  crowded 
with  aimless  tourists  and  distracted  by  the  incon- 
veniences of  strange  customs,  to  rightly  conceive  of 
our  own  religious  conditions,  not  to  speak  of  the 
attempt  to  catch  the  spirit  of  Asiatic  Buddhism  in 
its  endless  interweavings  of  thought  and  practise. 
Even  the  broadest  minded  student  needs  frequently 
to  think  of  Mark  Twain’s  proverb  that  the  only  ir- 
reverence is  irreverence  to  another  man’s  gods. 
For  after  all,  we  are  in  Burma  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  spirit  of  religion,  degraded  and  caricatured 
often,  but  to  the  Easterner  a religion  that  must  have 
some  meaning  and  which  must  not  be  judged  by 
isolated  instances  but  by  great  general  visions  upon 
its  effects  among  Asiatic  people.  It  often  helps  to 
study  another  nation’s  religion  in  contrast  to  one’s 
own.  “Knowing  is  distinguishing, ” said  one  phi- 
losopher. The  contrast  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity,  for  example,  are  both  profitable  to 
study  and  thought  provoking. 

As  Christians  we  often  say,  with  a conclusive  air, 
that  Buddhism  is  the  religion  of  annihilation  as 
contrasted  with  Christianity,  the  religion  of  Life, 
that  the  worship  of  Gautama  is  for  the  sake  of 
merit,  not  for  the  sake  of  communion  with  God; 
that  men  and  women  visit  the  shrines  and  Pagodas 
superstitiously  to  seek  for  favors  rather  than  to 
search  after  holiness  or  a release  from  the  fetters 
of  sin. 

One  is  struck,  however,  with  the  resemblance  of 
certain  Buddhist  temple  worship  with  that  of  Con- 
tinental peasants  worshiping  before  the  figure  of 
the  Mother  of  Jesus,  where  prayers  seem  to  be  in 


220  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Europe,  as  do  certain  prayers  in  Asia,  synonyms 
for  a kind  of  fortune-seeking  and  a search  for  good 
luck. 

In  Hare’s  “Walks  in  Rome,”  we  find  a descrip- 
tion of  a scene  which  calls  forth  similar  occasions 
witnessed  by  many  a traveler  in  Latin  countries : 

It  is  not  long  since  the  report  was  spread,  that  one  day 
Avhen  a poor  woman  called  upon  this  image  of  the  Madonna 
for  help,  it  began  to  speak,  and  replied,  “If  I had  only 
something,  then  I could  help  thee,  but  I myself  am  so 
poor!”  This  story  was  circulated,  and  very  soon  throngs 
of  credulous  people  hastened  hither  to  kiss  the  foot  of  the 
Madonna,  and  to  present  her  with  all  kinds  of  gifts.  The 
image  . . . now  sits  shining  with  ornaments  of  gold  and 
precious  stones.  Candles  and  lamps  burn  around,  and 
people  pour  in,  rich  and  poor,  great  and  small,  to  kiss — 
some  of  them  two  or  three  times — the  Madonna’s  foot.  . . . 
Below  the  altar  it  is  inscribed  in  golden  letters  that  Pius 
VII  promised  two  hundred  days’  absolution  to  all  such  as 
should  kiss  the  Madonna’s  foot  and  pray  with  the  whole 
heart  Ave  Maria. 

Without  attempting  to  judge  concerning  the  real- 
ity and  religious  devotion  of  his  fellow  men,  one 
cannot  but  note  a similarity  between  these  bare- 
headed, closely  shaven,  yellow-robed  and  sandaled 
priests,  followed  by  their  awe-struck  acolytes  in  the 
streets  of  Mandalay  or  Kandy  and  the  holy  men  at 
Benares,  the  dignified  Moslem  shiekh  at  El  Azhar 
and  also  the  pride-filled  countenances  of  the  priests 
of  European  Christianity  and  not  altogether 
absent  from  the  clerical  demeanor  of  our  English 
and  American  ritualism.  There  is  the  appearance 
at  least  of  finality  of  revelation  and  religion,  the 
air  of  tyranny  of  a settled  and  ultimate  creed,  the 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  221 


definite  reminder  of  a religion  based  solely  on  au- 
thority. Is  it  in  the  East  only  that  we  find  in  laity 
and  in  clergy  the  look  of  I-thank-God-I-am-not-as- 
other-men?  Is  it  in  Burma  only  that  we  find  men 
and  women  holding  on  like  grim  death  to  a set  of 
formulas  out  of  which  the  vitality  of  experience  and 
the  meanings  of  religious  thought  have  long  since 
passed?  Is  it  at  a great  Mala  at  Allahabad  that  we 
find  the  only  religious  convention  on  earth  in  which 
men  march  to  the  music  of  traditions  of  the  past 
which  have  never  been  expanded  and  adapted  to  the 
growing  hungering  humanity  of  a new  century? 

Is  it  not  true  that  in  Western  as  in  Eastern  lands 
to-day,  the  sheep  look  up  and  are  not  fed? 

One  sometimes  wonders  whether  hidden  beneath 
freer  customs  and  breathing  a liberty-loving  air, 
we,  the  professional  representatives  of  North- 
American  religion,  are  not  more  or  less  Buddhists 
and  Brahmans  and  Catholics  and  Moslems.  Is  it 
Eastern  only  to  regard  credulity  as  a virtue  and 
deceiving  one’s  good  sense  as  an  act  of  faith?  Is 
the  spirit  of  inquisition  which  is  the  spirit  of  re- 
ligious tyranny,  entirely  dead  amongst  us,  or  is  that 
same  sure  intuitive  sense  of  right  versus  sham  that 
makes  the  Asiatic  priest  at  times  repugnant  to  us, 
also  a characteristic  in  our  own  churchly  leader- 
ship and  authority  which  separates  the  professional 
Christian  from  the  people  whom  we  cannot  get  to 
church? 

Have  we  not  noticed  the  face  of  conservative 
Christianity  in  America  harden  before  the  exhi- 
bition or  narration  of  theories  and  practises  alien 
to  its  little  round  of  education  and  environment? 

I recall  seeing  one  of  our  own  priests  of  Protes- 


222  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tantism  stand  in  a prayer-meeting  and  make  the 
motion  to  exclude  his  own  son  from  the  church 
which  wras  founded  by  the  Christ  of  loving  kindness 
and  forgiveness,  because  that  son  had  made  his  first 
misstep.  I have  never  seen  greater  pharisaism  de- 
picted upon  the  drawn  face  of  any  Buddhist  or 
Hindu  holy  man  than  the  unloving  face  this  father 
revealed  that  day.  “How  dwelleth  the  love  of  God 
in  him?”  a friend  whispered  in  my  ear. 

Some  of  us  are  not  so  old  but  that  we  recall  the 
doubt  with  which  one  sect  in  our  country  towns 
looked  upon  the  other  with  anathema  in  its  eyes, 
and  even  heresy  trials  and  self-appointed  regu- 
lators of  morals  frequently  remind  the  world  trav- 
eler of  the  caste  exclusions  of  India.  What  is  this 
loftiness  of  look,  this  arrogance  and  bigotry  of  de- 
meanor, written  upon  the  countenance  of  the  high 
caste  Brahmin  or  the  wearer  of  the  yellow  robe 
stalking  in  his  petty  dignity  and  officialdom  through 
the  streets  and  pagodas  of  Bombay  and  Rangoon, 
but  a sign  language  of  contempt  for  and  outcasting 
of  heretics — the  children  of  earth  who  do  not  and 
cannot  think  as  they  do? 

East  or  West,  regardless  of  color  or  race,  the 
forces  that  make  in  greater  or  less  degree,  accord- 
ing to  civilization,  the  apostles  of  religious  author- 
ity are  the  same.  In  each  case  it  is  really  a lack  of 
entering  in  to  the  deeper  consciousness  and  life  and 
motives  of  one’s  fellows.  It  is  the  failure  to  hear 
the  still,  sad  music  of  humanity;  it  is  the  building 
and  supporting  of  that  middle  wall  of  partition 
which  divides  rather  than  unites  the  common  broth- 
erhood of  man.  Religion,  when  perverted,  can 
harden  hearts  as  no  other  force  can  do.  I have  seen 


ROMANTIC  AND  BUDDHIST  BURMA  223 


Western  travelers  look  with  awful  disgust  and  pity 
upon  the  arrogance  and  idolatry  of  the  Asiatic,  and 
it  is  the  same  spirit  which  at  home  passes  by  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Samaritan  because  he  is  not  one 
of  us. 

It  is  not  geography,  it  is  not  always  the  name 
of  a doctrine  that  determines  our  religion.  Far 
deeper,  said  Jesus,  is  the  principle  of  true  religion 
— even  “that  which  cometh  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
man.”  Religious  restoration  whether  in  Manda- 
lay or  in  New  York  waits  not  upon  doctrine  but 
upon  love;  without  it  a golden  pagoda  is  a tawdry 
shrine  and  a gothic  cathedral  is  a cavern  of  gloom. 

A little  word  of  four  letters  has  wandered  out 
of  theology  into  the  market-place  of  life  because  of 
our  present  day  need  of  it;  that  word  is  Love.  That 
word  is  the  sign  of  the  man  of  true  religion,  be  he 
Asiatic,  European  or  American,  the  man  who  can 
by  sympathetic  imagination  put  himself  in  his 
brother’s  place,  who  cares  for  the  individual  more 
than  for  the  badge  he  wears,  who  has  broken  out 
of  his  heart  that  larger  chamber  where  love  is,  who 
has  not  only  read  but  has  learned  in  the  school  of 
life  Paul’s  great  definition  of  a religious  man,  pos- 
sessed of  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world,  “the  love 
that  sutlers  long  and  is  kind.” 

An  old  missionary  in  India  whose  shadow  like 
that  of  St.  Peter  seemed  to  heal,  said  when  I asked 
him  the  secret  of  missionary  success  in  Asia: 

“I  have  none,  I just  love  these  people!” 

Is  it  heresy  to  say  that  we  shall  not  modernize  the 
Orient  religiously  until  we  have  Orientalized  our- 
selves religiously,  that  we  shall  not  convert  the 
East  to  Christianity  until  we  have  converted  our- 


224  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


selves  to  the  “new  commandment”  of  love  given  by 
the  Great  Easterner  who  said:  “By  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love 
one  to  another 


XV 


China  in  the  Crucible 

AS  I leave  China,  after  weeks  of  travel  and  in- 
vestigation and  interviews  with  her  leading 
men,  the  retrospect  is  neither  roseate  nor  reassur- 
ing. 

The  clouds  of  uncertainty  and  danger  hover 
thickly  upon  the  political  horizon  of  this  old  nation. 
Yuan  Shi  Kai,  who  by  common  consent  is  conceded 
to  be  the  only  man  in  China  possessing  the  ability 
or  the  political  force  to  lead  strongly  his  country, 
is  implicated  by  the  Kno  Mingtang  party  and  the 
partisans  of  the  southern  provinces  with  the  assas- 
sination of  the  nationalist,  political  leader,  Sung 
Chiao-yen,  while  his  acceptance  of  the  five-power 
loan  without  the  approval  of  the  new  parliament 
has  brought  down  upon  his  head  a storm  of  abuse 
and  protest.  One  evening  a mass  meeting  was  held 
in  Shanghai  with  3,000  Chinese  present,  when  reso- 
lutions were  adopted  calling  upon  Yuan  to  resign 
and  asking  the  provinces  to  stop  paying  tribute  to 
the  present  government.  The  latter  request  was 
hardly  necessary  to  urge,  since  from  time  immemo- 
rial, revolutionary  conditions  have  meant  to  the 
provinces  “no  taxation.” 

In  an  interview  with  Dr.  Sun  Yat  Sen  just  as  I 
left  China,  I found  him  predicting  with  gloomy 
brows,  “War,  civil  war.”  “I  have  held  back  my 
friends,”  said  he,  “as  long  as  I can.  This  alliance 

225 


226  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


of  the  president  and  his  prime  minister  with  assas- 
sins is  too  much  to  endure.  Southern  provinces  are 
certain  to  rise  up  in  revolt,  and  there  is  much  trou- 
ble ahead  for  us  all.” 

Yuan,  nothing  daunted,  has  issued  a decree  to  the 
governor  general  of  the  provinces  to  arrest  all  sus- 
picious characters;  it  was  even  reported  that  the 
president  had  sent  hired  assassins  to  the  vicinity 
of  Shanghai,  where  it  was  said  that  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  desperate  characters  had  fled  to  the  For- 
eign Concessions  for  shelter;  meanwhile,  thirty 
thousand  troops  are  said  to  he  marching  southward 
from  Peking  to  Hankow.  A Peking  paper,  organ  of 
the  government,  declared  that  Yuan  must  resign  or 
resort  to  a coup  d’etat.  Another  asserted  that 
Yuan  wishes  to  establish  an  imperial  government 
with  himself  on  the  throne ; that  he  had  spent  4,000,- 
000  taels  in  buying  up  the  Nationalists.  So  runs 
the  tide  of  changing  criticism  about  the  new  repub- 
lican president. 

It  looks  much  as  though  China  was  following 
France  in  her  method  of  establishing  a republic. 
As  Louis  Napoleon  once  said  to  Richard  Cobden, 
“France  makes  her  changes  not  by  reformation,  but 
by  revolution.” 

Through  all  these  changes,  the  former  Chinese 
political  leaders  are  cautiously  assuring  themselves 
of  safety.  In  Hongkong  I found  that  one  of  the 
prominent  Chinese  who  had  assisted  in  drawing  up 
the  new  constitution  had  moved  his  family  into  the 
precincts  of  the  English  protectorate  for  fear  of 
having  his  children  kidnaped.  Wu  Ting  Fang, 
after  his  diplomatic  years,  is  sitting  tight  in  Shang- 
hai, as  he  expressed  it  to  me,  “playing  a watching, 


CHINA  IN  THE  CEUCIBLE 


227 


a waiting  game.”  But  one  notices  tliat  lie  is  ob- 
serving these  diplomatic  tactics  in  his  fine  home  in 
the  midst  of  European  neighbors  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  foreign  settlements. 

The  powers,  five  of  them,  America  having  with- 
drawn, have  nominally  accepted  the  25,000,000- 
pound  loan  agreement,  upon  which  the  tardy  Chinese 
parliament  has  not  acted,  hut  which  agreement  has 
been  signed  by  the  president  upon  his  own  respon- 
sibility. 

As  I took  my  steamer  for  Japan,  I saw  officials 
with  tall  hats  about  the  jetty,  which  meant  that  the 
government  had  just  been  receiving  official  news 
from  the  office  of  the  consulate  general  that  the 
United  States  had  recognized  the  Chinese  republic. 
Exactly  what  that  means  would  he  difficult  for  a 
practical  onlooker  to  define.  The  real  republic 
seems  to  be  a different  entity  from  that  known  in 
America.  In  fact,  only  a comparative  few  at  the 
political  top  are  interested  in  the  least  in  govern- 
ment affairs  beyond  the  payment  of  taxes  and  the 
preserving  of  peaceable  conditions.  The  great 
deeps  of  the  still  and  “brooding  soul  of  China”  are 
quite  oblivious  to  this  whirlwind  of  social  and  po- 
litical change.  The  assembly  at  Peking,  which  should 
know  what  this  republic  means,  have  taken  eighteen 
months  to  wrangle  among  themselves  over  petty 
matters  and  have  only  recently  succeeded  in  suffi- 
cient union  to  elect  a speaker  of  the  house. 

The  foreign  officials  exhibit  a tendency,  prevalent 
among  the  majority  of  the  sober  men  of  all  races 
and  classes,  to  stand  by  Yuan  as  the  only  possible 
strong  leader  capable  of  bringing  order  and  prog- 
ress out  of  the  present  chaos.  The  northern  army 


228  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


is  with  the  president  as  it  would  not  be  with  another 
Chinese,  Yuan  being  the  only  member  of  this  race 
who  has  had  the  honor  of  organizing  and  conducting 
a modern  army.  Some  of  the  strong  governors  also 
are  in  his  confidence  and  are  loyal  to  him,  and  if  the 
foreign  loan  falls  into  his  hand^  there  would  seem 
to  be  little  difficulty  in  his  subduing  the  present  un- 
rest, though  this  unrest  might  easily  spread  to  the 
formation  of  new  confederacies  in  this  vast  nation. 

One  European  Consul  expressed  the  attitude 
taken  generally  by  foreign  officials.  “It  is  a prac- 
tical matter — a Chinese  matter,  and  we  must  look 
to  the  necessity  for  practical  results  and  peace 
rather  than  enquire  too  intimately  into  conditions 
that  are  as  yet  only  partly  Western,  indeed  mostly 
Oriental,  in  character  and  in  treatment.” 

One  Sunday  I attended  a great  mass  meeting  of 
Chinese  in  the  Martyr’s  Memorial  Hall  of  the 
Shanghai  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  build- 
ing. It  was  one  of  several  large  meetings  held  in 
the  city  that  day  to  celebrate  a day  of  Christian 
prayer  for  China  in  response  to  the  unusual  appeal 
made  by  Yuan  Shi  Kai  and  the  Peking  government 
for  prayers  for  the  new  Republic.  Chinese  Chris- 
tians were  addressing  the  meeting  of  several  thou- 
sand crowded  into  the  hall  and  standing  in  the  aisles. 
The  Chinese  Minister  of  Finance,  Wu  Ting  Fang, 
and  other  notable  Chinese  public  men,  with  the  lead- 
ing missionaries,  occupied  the  platform.  It  was  a 
solemn,  impressive  meeting,  an  overflow  gathering 
of  many  hundreds  being  held  simultaneously  in  an- 
other hall  of  the  same  building. 

Although  cynical  and  political  interpretations  are 
usually  attached  to  this  call  for  a day  of  prayer, 


CHINA  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 


229 


among  the  business  residents  of  Shanghai — a mem- 
ber of  Sun  Yat  Sen’s  railway  firm  saying  to  me 
significantly,  “Assassins  need  prayer  if  any  do” — 
the  call  has  made  an  impression  upon  Christian 
and  non-Christian  China  and  should  mark  a distinct 
point  of  progress  in  the  prestige  of  Christian  mis- 
sions. 

To  endeavor  to  prophesy  concerning  the  future 
through  all  these  baffling  tendencies,  even  to  attempt 
to  depict  the  forces  which  are  now  working  in  these 
kaleidoscopic  changes  surging  about  the  empty 
Dragon  Throne,  is  certainly  difficult.  I have  asked 
scores  of  prominent  Chinese  the  question,  “Just 
what  is  happening  at  present  in  China?”  In  most 
cases  they  answer  truthfully,  “We  do  not  know.” 
One  is  at  least  convinced  that  it  is  not  a new  order 
so  much  as  it  is  no  order.  If  it  is  a democracy,  it  is 
a democracy  tempered  with  despotism.  The  true 
meaning  of  the  word  Republic  has  hardly  dawned 
upon  the  minds  even  of  New  China’s  political  lead- 
ership. The  whole  nation  is  a melting  pot  of  dis- 
jointed ideas  and  ideals;  the  old  and  the  new,  the 
Confucian  and  the  Christian,  the  governors  and  the 
governed  have  been  cast  suddenly  and  promiscu- 
ously into  a great  seething  caldron  of  change  and 
forces  only  partially  understood  by  the  participants 
themselves.  Who  can  tell  which  or  what  will  finally 
struggle  to  the  surface  and  survive?  It  is  certain 
that  something  of  China’s  repressive  conservatism, 
her  huge  inertia,  has  been  stirred.  But  to  call  this 
half-formed,  incoherent  uproar  of  clashing  official 
interests  a Republic,  or  as  one  of  the  new  leaders 
of  China  has  expressed  it,  “the  declaration  of  the 
will  of  the  Chinese  people”  is  to  be  blest  with  a 


230  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


higher  degree  of  imagination  than  is  vouchsafed  to 
the  common  man. 

Meanwhile  the  revolution  is  still  on.  The  latest 
telegrams  reveal  that  the  prediction  of  Sun  Yat  Sen 
concerning  civil  war  is  not  the  dream  of  a dreamer. 
The  results  are  on  the  knees  of  the  gods,  the  end 
is  not  yet.  China  is  only  now  discovering  that  to 
change  the  name  of  a political  government  does  not 
necessarily  solve  her  political  problems.  She  may 
well  consider  the  words  of  James  Russell  Lowell, 
who  gave  advice  to  America  that  is  peculiarly 
suitable  to  present  day  China : 

“We  have  been  compelled  to  see  what  was  weak  in 
democracy  as  well  as  what  was  strong.  We  have 
begun  to  recognize  that  things  do  not  grow  of  them- 
selves, and  that  popular  government  is  not  in  itself 
a panacea,  is  no  better  than  any  other  form  except 
as  the  virtue  and  wisdom  of  the  people  make  it  so, 
and  that  when  men  undertake  to  do  their  own  king- 
ship,  they  enter  upon  the  dangers  and  responsibili- 
ties as  well  as  the  privileges  of  the  function.  Above 
all,  it  looks  as  if  we  were  on  the  way  to  be  per- 
suaded that  no  government  can  be  carried  on  by 
declaration.  ’ ’ 

Whether  the  result  will  be  that  Yuan  shall  be 
made  supreme  as  the  head  of  a Republic  or  become 
a monarch  as  some  predict;  whether  the  Manchu 
government  will  return  as  others  maintain  it  must 
do;  or  whether  China’s  disunion  will  mean  her 
eventual  dismemberment,  those  who  know  the  Chi- 
nese best  believe  that  they  will  bring  victory  out 
of  defeat  in  accordance  with  their  immemorial  habit 
of  stumbling  along  through  chaos  to  order,  accom- 
plishing often  the  seemingly  impossible.  It  is  al- 


CHINA  IN  THE  CRUCIBLE 


231 


ways  to  be  remembered  that  Chinese  merchants  do 
not  want  war;  that  the  people  are  tired  of  revolu- 
tion; that  national  patriotism  does  not  run  in  the 
Chinese  veins  as  it  does  in  Japan,  but  that  China 
craves,  beyond  all  else,  peace  and  with  it  prosperity. 
If  the  present  political  leaders,  sinking  selfish  and 
partisan  interests,  can  convince  the  people  that  the 
new  government  will  bring  about  such  essential 
conditions  for  the  happiness  of  these  slow  moving 
and  conservative  people,  the  Republic  may  be  as- 
sured. 


XVI 


Along  the  Canals  in  China 

IF  you  would  see  and  know  the  real  China,  you 
must  follow  the  canals  that  make  of  central 
China  especially,  a net  work  of  waterways,  a kind 
of  Oriental,  rural  Venice. 

These  canals  are  to  the  country  folk  in  China, 
what  the  Nile  is  to  the  Egyptian  fellaheen.  They 
are  the  sole  means  of  communication;  the  carriers 
of  both  population  and  produce.  They  link  together 
the  country  and  the  city,  the  farmer  and  the  sea. 

Everything  depends  upon  the  canal  in  inland 
China.  Out  of  its  depths  the  Chinese  peasant 
dredges  the  rich,  fertilizing  mud  for  his  land. 
Along  its  banks  in  the  deserted  sections,  grow  the 
reeds  with  which  the  Chinese  make  their  sleeping 
mats  and  boat  covers.  Into  these  canals  the  people 
place  their  great  water  wheels  which  are  turned  by 
the  village  water  buffalos  and  the  canal  water  be- 
comes the  system  of  irrigation  for  the  fields.  The 
boat  of  the  farmer  takes  his  rice  to  the  market  and 
the  same  boat  takes  his  family  for  an  outing.  In 
these  crafts  one  finds  beggars  and  itinerants  taking 
refuge  on  the  canals  from  the  famines  as  well  as 
from  war  and  flood. 

On  the  Canal  boat  occur  all  the  tragedies  and 
joys  of  life.  Here  the  Chinese  are  born  and  marry 
and  die.  In  some  boats  you  can  easily  pick  out 
father,  mother,  and  grandmother,  brothers,  and 

232 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  233 


numberless  children;  then  extra  places  are  rented 
to  lodgers. 

These  water  habitations  are  freezing  cold  in  win- 
ter and  scorching  hot  in  summer.  Their  inhabit- 
ants observe  no  sanitary  laws  and  some  of  the 
boats  look  that  dirty  that  one  concludes  that  no 
microbe  or  self-respecting  germ  would  condescend  to 
live  in  them. 

In  some  parts  of  China,  Foochow  for  example,  I 
found  literally  hundreds  of  people  who  lived  on 
their  boats  and  had  never  slept  upon  the  shore.  It 
is  a life  apart  and  among  the  most  fascinating  ex- 
periences of  the  Oriental  traveler  come  back  in 
memory  the  days  when  he  floated  along  leisurely  on 
the  Grand  Canal  between  Hanchow  and  Peking  or 
followed  some  of  the  numberless  branches  of  this 
main  water  way,  which  winds  like  country  roads  in 
the  West,  throughout  the  rural  parts  of  central 
China. 

The  villages  and  often  the  separate  houses,  in- 
deed, have  smaller  private  canals  to  their  doors. 
One  seldom  sees  roads  in  these  sections,  only  the 
towpath  or  footpaths  winding  from  village  to  vil- 
lage. The  villagers  place  their  farmhouses  at  some 
distance  from  the  large  Canal  because  of  their  fear 
of  canal  pirates  and  thieves.  It  is,  moreover,  a just 
fear. 

We  were  told  of  an  incident  concerning  the  son 
of  a missionary  who  had  married  and  had  just 
started  upon  his  honeymoon  taking  a boat  trip  along 
one  of  the  large  canals.  Upon  rising  in  the  morn- 
ing he  found  that  thieves  had  been  aboard  his 
houseboat  and  had  taken  literally  everything  in 
sight,  not  excepting  all  of  his  clothing.  He  was 


234  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


obliged  to  continue  bis  journey  clad  in  paja- 
mas. 

To  those  who  really  go  to  China  to  capture  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  of  this  old  and  wonderful  land, 
a houseboat  trip  upon  the  canals  is  a necessity. 
One  often  wonders  why  the  tourists  are  satisfied 
with  taking  the  round  of  sight-seeing  trips  in  the 
big  port  cities  like  Shanghai,  Hongkong  and  Peking 
where  the  Orient  is  so  largely  Occidentalized,  hardly 
discovering  the  China  of  a thousand  years  ago,  as 
it  can  be  seen  so  easily  by  boat  trips  into  the  in- 
terior. 

Around  Shanghai,  the  country  is  traversed  by 
canals  which  are  often  only  wide  enough  to  permit 
the  passing  of  two  boats.  You  will  secure  a house- 
boat, a craft  sixty  feet  long,  comfortably  fitted  with 
cabin,  drawing  room,  dining  room  and  one  or  more 
bedrooms.  At  the  back  of  the  boat  is  a small 
kitchen  and  behind  the  kitchen  an  after-deck  upon 
which  are  the  two  big  sculls  and  beneath  which  the 
boat  crew  is  quartered. 

The  houseboat  has  a captain  or  laudali,  who  lives 
on  the  boat  and  receives  a salary  of  six  dollars  a 
month  upon  which  he  himself  lives  and  quite  likely 
supports  a numerous  family.  In  addition  to  the 
captain  one  usually  engages  five  or  six  coolies  whose 
total  wages  are  certainly  not  exorbitant,  usually 
not  exceeding  a dollar  a day  for  the  entire  six. 
Each  one  of  these  coolies  boards  with  the  laudah 
paying  six  cents  a day  for  his  rice,  vegetables,  and 
some  cheap  fish. 

The  boats  are  moved  by  various  means,  some- 
times by  sailing,  at  other  times  by  sculling  or  by 


water-gate  entrance  to  the  city  of  Foochow,  China 


fK  1 1 


The  steam  river-boats  at  Hongkong  contrast  pleasantly  with  the  jinrickishas  on  the  quay 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  235 


being  towed  by  launches  which  leave  Shanghai  for 
the  interior  of  China  each  day.  All  this  at  $5,  or 
one  English  pound  per  day. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  which  one  finds  most  inter- 
esting on  these  canal  trips,  the  inland  cities  and 
villages  or  the  strange,  droll  sights  and  noises  greet- 
ing one  in  the  rural  districts. 

Soochoo,  one  of  the  large  inland  cities,  which 
one  first  reaches  on  such  canal  voyages,  gave  us  a 
different  impression  than  anything  we  had  seen  even 
in  the  native  parts  of  Shanghai  or  Nanking.  There 
are  water  gates  for  the  entrance  of  the  boats  into 
the  city  and  these  as  well  as  the  seven  gates  to  this 
walled  town  are  closed  at  night.  The  keys  to  these 
gates,  in  an  official  city  at  least,  that  is  in  a city 
where  there  resides  a governor  or  viceroy,  are  taken 
to  the  official  residence  for  safe  keeping  at  night 
and  one  needs  only  to  attempt  to  trespass  upon  these 
gate  laws  to  realize  with  what  strictness  the  Chinese 
hold  to  some  of  their  old  conservative  customs. 

With  the  morning,  however,  you  leave  your  house- 
boat and  pass  into  a veritable  hive  of  Orientalism. 
You  are  plunged  at  once  into  a great  sea  of  shops, 
for  the  Chinese  are  the  shopkeepers  of  the  world. 
Indeed,  China  may  share  with  all  Oriental  races, 
certain  traits  and  tendencies,  but  in  her  shopkeep- 
ing instinct,  she  is  unique  among  nations.  India 
may  surpass  her  in  imagination  and  speculative  re- 
ligious genius.  Japan  is  clearly  her  superior  in 
military  alertness  and  efficiency,  but  in  the  unadul- 
terated genius  of  buying  and  selling  small  wares, 
the  Chinese  are  supreme  among  Orientals.  In  the 
words  of  Archibald  E.  Colquhoun : 


236  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


They  are  the  original,  true  and  only  real  shop-keepers, 
and  in  every  position  of  life,  even  the  farthest  removed 
from  the  atmosphere  of  commerce  may  be  said  to  think  in 
money.  As  with  the  Jew,  their  instinctive  habit  is  one  of 
perpetual  appraisement. 

It  has  been  this  commercial  instinct,  inborn  in 
the  Chinese  race  and  cultivated  beyond  all  other 
faculties  that  has  lost  for  China  her  territory  and 
has  made  the  present  political  revolution  most  diffi- 
cult for  the  leaders.  The  Chinese  do  not  care  for 
war,  they  have  always  studiously  avoided  it.  They 
have  made  few  demands  upon  their  conquerors, 
the  Manchus,  for  the  past  eight  hundred  years,  save 
that  they  be  allowed  to  go  on  unmolested  with  their 
shopkeeping  and  money-getting  enterprises. 

The  leaders  of  the  new  republican  regime  tell  me 
that  in  these  days  of  revolution  and  unrest  in  China, 
this  hereditary  bias  towards  business,  this  persist- 
ent determination  to  amass  a fortune  by  trade,  is 
the  chief  drawback  to  a speedy  and  firm  establish- 
ment of  government.  When  trouble  or  disaffection 
arises  in  a certain  section  or  Province,  the  Chinese 
merchant  inhabitating  the  turbulent  district,  gath- 
ers up  his  household  gods  with  haste,  and  flies  with 
his  portable  business  to  some  protected  quarter  like 
Hongkong  or  the  foreign  district  of  Shanghai,  there 
beginning  again  his  shopkeeping  life  under  the  pro- 
tecting aegis  of  a foreign  flag.  “If  these  shopkeep- 
ers,” said  Mr.  C.  H.  Lee  of  South  China,  in  speaking 
to  me  of  the  difficulties  of  the  new  Republican  offi- 
cials, “would  only  stay  by  their  business  and  their 
homes  and  be  willing  to  do  a little  fighting  for  the 
new  principle  of  government  and  future  political 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  237 


quiet,  we  would  very  soon  be  able  to  establish  a re- 
public. ’ ’ 

This  allegiance  to  the  dollar,  however,  is  even 
stronger  in  China  than  in  Egypt,  where  the  piastre 
and  “the  pound”  are  the  constant  accompaniments 
of  every  conversation  one  may  overhear  in  any  cir- 
cle whatsoever.  Chinese  upon  the  street,  in  their 
homes,  or  in  their  times  of  relaxation,  coolies,  la- 
borers, shopkeepers,  boatmen,  it  matters  not  what 
may  be  the  calling,  will  be  talking  of  the  cost  of 
things. 

Abbe  Hue  says: 

The  Chinese  has  a passionate  love  of  lucre;  he  is  fond 
of  all  kinds  of  speculation  and  stock-jobbing,  and  his  mind, 
full  of  finesse  and  cunning,  takes  delight  in  combining  and 
calculating  the  chances  of  a commercial  operation. 

The  Chinese,  par  excellence,  is  a man  installed  behind 
the  counter  of  a shop,  waiting  for  his  customers  with  pa- 
tience and  resignation,  and  in  the  intervals  of  their  arrival 
pondering  in  his  head  and  casting  up  on  his  little  arith- 
metical machine,  the  means  for  increasing  his  fortune. 
Whatever  may  be  the  nature  and  importance  of  his  busi- 
ness, he  neglects  not  the  smallest  profit ; the  least  gain  is 
always  welcome  and  he  accepts  it  eagerly;  the  greatest  of 
all  is  his  enjoyment  when  in  the  evening,  having  well  closed 
and  barricaded  his  shop,  he  can  retire  into  some  corner  and 
there  count  up  religiously  the  number  of  his  sapeks,  and 
reckon  the  earnings  of  the  day. 

The  Chinese  is  born  with  this  taste  for  traffic  which 
grows  with  his  growth  and  strengthens  with  his  strength. 
The  first  thing  a child  longs  for  is  a sapek;  the  first  use 
that  he  makes  of  his  speech  and  intelligence  is  to  learn  to 
articulate  the  names  of  coins;  when  his  little  fingers  are 
strong  enough  to  hold  the  pencil  it  is  with  making  figures 


238  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


that  he  amuses  himself,  and  as  soon  as  the  tiny  creature  can 
walk  and  speak  he  is  capable  of  buying  and  selling. 

One  of  the  first  impressions  of  the  traveler  as  he 
arrives  in  China  from  the  Malay  States  and  India 
is  along  the  line  of  this  industry  in  trade.  No  one 
has  been  carried  through  the  streets  of  Canton  but 
has  noticed  the  difference  between  the  comparative 
slackness  of  industry  and  attention  to  trade,  both 
wholesale  and  retail,  among  the  Indians,  and  that 
which  meets  his  eye  in  the  well  ordered  stores  whose 
name  is  legion  in  this  Chinese  city,  or  in  the  great 
hongs  and  warehouses  where  the  Chinese  rather 
than  Europeans  are  the  successful  heads  of  large 
industries. 

Nor  is  it  entirely  greed  that  actuates  the  Chinese 
merchant.  He  loves  to  bargain.  It  is  to  him  his 
play  as  well  as  his  toil.  It  was  said  that  Li  Hung 
Chang  used  to  derive  more  pleasure  from  “doing” 
an  employee  out  of  half  a month’s  pay,  even  if  it 
took  him  an  entire  afternoon  to  accomplish  this, 
than  if  he  had  saved  a Province  to  the  Empire.  We 
are  told  that  the  Chinese  student  who  wishes  to 
ingratiate  himself  with  a rich  uncle  is  usually  wise 
enough  to  play  a losing  game  at  chess. 

One  need  only  spend  a day  in  the  tortuous  streets 
of  a native  Chinese  city  to  realize  that  nothing  in 
the  way  of  shopkeeping  is  foreign  to  the  citizen  of 
the  Middle  Kingdom.  In  fact,  one  remembers 
China  in  the  term  of  shop-hemmed  streets.  The 
Westerner  would  scarcely  call  them  streets,  these 
winding  paths  less  than  eight  feet  in  width — lined 
with  cubbv-hole  stores  from  which  the  scent  of  silk- 
stuff  s,  fish,  and  bamboo  comes  forth  to  greet  one, 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  239 


mingled  with  many  other  street  odors  that  are  not 
perfumes. 

With  the  possible  exception  of  the  Souks  of  Tunis, 
there  is  nothing  more  curious  in  the  Orient,  nothing 
more  diverting  than  are  these  native  Chinese 
streets.  Some  of  them  are  arched  over  with  carved 
roofs,  hung  thick  with  signs  of  black  lacquer  and 
others  are  gay  with  flamboyant  banners  crying  forth 
in  startling  colored  characters  the  nature  of  a mul- 
tifold merchandise.  You  are  hurtled  along  in  a 
sedan  chair  carried  by  two  or  three  stout  coolies 
whose  ‘ ‘ hi ! hoi ! ’ ’ bearer ’s  song,  in  rhythm  with  their 
swift  pattering  feet,  adds  to  the  pleasing  and 
strange  sensations  of  that  Orientalism  belonging 
to  the  Chinese  bazaars. 

Your  chair  is  swept  by  great  gilded  fans  that 
float  above  a shop  window  and  lure  you  toward  a 
fan  shop.  Gay  silken  hangings  brush  your  side  as 
you  are  borne  swiftly  along,  reminding  you  that  silk 
stores  are  at  hand. 

The  street  crowds  are  as  fascinating  as  an  Ara- 
bian Night’s  dream.  Here  you  see  in  miniature  the 
Chinese  world.  A coolie  darts  along  carrying  on 
either  end  of  a long  bamboo  pole,  balanced  on  his 
sturdy  shoulders,  great  wooden  buckets  containing 
hot  water  or  refuse  or  perhaps  great  bowls  brim- 
ming over  with  rice.  A gong  sounds  and  your  bear- 
ers crowd  your  chair  into  one  of  the  small  shops 
where  you  watch  some  old  Manchu  pass,  seated 
calmly  in  his  green  chair,  spirited  along  upon  the 
shoulders  of  four  chanting  bearers.  He  is  heralded 
by  an  advance  guard  of  boys  carrying  the  axes, 
banners  and  umbrellas  which  are  the  insignia  of  the 


240  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


great  man,  while  behind  his  Chinese  Lordship,  trail 
a picturesque  bodyguard  of  dignified  looking  secre- 
taries, and  guards  on  horseback. 

There  are  funeral  processions,  too,  attended  by 
chanting  priests  and  wailing  mourners  clad  in  white 
— the  sign  of  Chinese  grief;  old  women  pass  with 
shining  coats  and  sleekly  combed  hair,  carrying  in- 
cense to  the  temple  and  paper,  counterfeit  money — 
for  the  gods,  who  do  not  know  the  difference. 
Twenty  coolies  claim  the  entire  street  through  re- 
spect for  their  burden  as  they  swing  along  to  a 
sharp,  lyric,  warning  cry,  bearing  between  them  a 
monstrous  mast  of  pine. 

As  background  and  color  for  these  scenes  so 
strange  to  Western  eyes,  there  are  sudden  kaleido- 
scopic effects  made  by  sweetmeat  sellers  piping 
their  plaintive  invitation  on  painted  bamboo  flutes; 
old  men  on  donkeys,  glimpses  of  the  mask-like  faces 
of  the  Chinese  ladies  peeping  out  from  behind  elabo- 
rate curtained  chairs  as  they  are  whisked  along  by 
liveried  servants.  Your  dreams  at  night  are  a kind 
of  potpourri  a la  Chinese,  as  you  sleep  a tired,  won- 
dering sleep,  filled  with  beggars,  jade,  toy  shops, 
and  porcelain,  teak  wood,  fortune  tellers,  rikshaws, 
and  the  click  of  the  habacus;  yellow-robed  priests, 
curving  roofs,  half-shaven  heads,  the  smell  of 
leather  and  tea  chests  and  the  sound  of  beating 
brass  commingle  in  your  dream;  weavers,  dyers, 
clattering  tinsmiths,  fearsome  smells  of  fish,  var- 
nished pigs,  Chinese  humor  and  Chinese  fatalism, 
with  all  the  indescribable  impressions  in  the  realm 
of  Oriental  bargaining,  make  your  houseboat  slum- 
bers memorable,  and  when  with  the  morning  light 
your  boat  moves  you  along  toward  the  inland  life 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  241 


of  peasantry,  yon  feel  that  you  have  lived  many 
years  in  one  brief  day  in  a native  city. 

I had  expected  the  canals  of  China  to  remind  me 
somewhat  of  the  poppy  and  hyacinth  fields  of  Hol- 
land, with  possibly  a pagoda  for  a wind  mill  and  a 
blue-gowned  peasant  in  the  place  of  the  neat,  white- 
hooded  Dutchwomen.  But  I found  a far  different 
world,  far  more  quaint  and  strange  than  the  life 
along  the  canals  in  the  land  that  Hollanders  have 
redeemed  from  the  sea.  It  is  different  in  so  many 
ways.  Surely  it  is  older,  older  than  Europe  and 
older  than  Nineveh  and  Babylon.  You  somehow 
feel  as  never  before  “that  a thousand  years  of  Eu- 
rope is  but  a cycle  of  Cathay.”  It  is  a relief,  indeed, 
after  the  surfeit  of  new  scenes  and  towns  to  lie 
stretched  out  in  the  sunshine  in  your  long  cane  chair 
on  the  deck  of  the  moving  house,  snatching  first 
glimpses  of  that  remote  and  unfamiliar  land  so  far 
removed  from  the  pride  and  progress  and  “base 
conquest”  of  the  West.  We  now  begin  to  move 
amid  the  vast  reaches  of  rural  life  which  is  con- 
ducive to  thoughtfulness — the  farming  men  and 
women  toiling  upon  well-tilled  fields  and  terraces, 
or  wading  in  the  rice  bearing  valleys  or  bargaining 
in  the  populous  villages  filled  with  dogs  and  chil- 
dren: they  are  following  the  avocations  of  their 
fathers  of  primordial  centuries.  We  are  coming 
close  to  the  real  people  of  China.  This  mysterious, 
patient,  resisting,  peace-loving,  industrious,  and  un- 
fathomable blue-clad  people,  are  our  antipodes  in 
their  almost  every  thought  and  custom,  these  un- 
numbered folk  who  compose  one-third  of  the  earth’s 
population : 


242  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


“"Who  can  see  the  green  earth  any  more 
As  she  was  by  the  sources  of  Time? 

Who  imagines  her  fields  as  they  lay 
In  the  sunshine,  unworn  by  the  plow  ? 

Who  thinks  as  they  thought, 

The  tribes  who  then  roamed  on  her  breast, 

Her  vigorous  primitive  sons?” 

It  is  well  worth  a trip  to  the  Orient  to  experience 
the  indelible  and  subtle  reality  of  those  forces  that 
make  up  our  fundamental  humanity,  as  one  sees 
them  plainly  in  this  unhurried  planting  and  reaping, 
breeding  and  dying  life  of  the  simple,  laborious,  but 
on  the  whole,  happy  Chinese  toilers.  This  genuine 
detachment  from  our  world  conquering  organiza- 
tions and  labor  saving  devices,  this  relief  for  a time 
from  all  the  bonds  of  scientific  modernity  has 
brought  many  an  Occidental  back  to  himself,  con- 
verting a leisurely  trip  along  the  canals  of  China 
into  an  unforgetable  life  epoch.  To  this  plain  and 
independent,  agricultural  people,  whose  hopes  and 
fears  are  bounded  by  their  rice  fields  and  numerous 
households,  our  Western  advances  and  armaments 
are  as  unknown  as  they  were  to  their  celestial  sires ; 
or  if  they  have  heard  of  them  they  are  still,  to  the 
Chinese,  the  “unaccountable,  uncomfortable  works 
of  God.”  To  be  sure  their  little  round  of  work  is 
encompassed  and  shot  through  by  the  great  and 
compelling  economic  necessity,  by  ancestor  worship 
and  by  fighting  off  disease,  poverty  and  famine,  but 
au  fond  it  is  the  life  story  of  the  sons  of  men,  more 
clearly  seen  here  in  this  unframed  picture  of  land 
and  sky  and  humble  farmers,  where  simple  things 
stand  out  like  solitary  trees  against  the  sky  line. 

One  does  not  easily  forget  those  curved  blue-tiled 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  243 


roofs,  glimpses  of  which  can  be  seen  from  your 
houseboat  among  the  groves  of  bamboo  and  camphor 
trees.  Sometimes  there  are  tiny  hamlets  composed 
of  less  than  a dozen  houses  constructed  of  loose 
stone  and  covered  with.  ivy.  Frequently  an  entire 
village  is  made  up  of  the  members  of  one  family. 
It  began  with  one  man  in  a past  generation  with 
his  wife  and  his  sons.  The  sons  married  and 
brought  their  wives  to  the  parental  roof  tree.  New 
generations  rose  and  new  wives  and  an  ever  increas- 
ing horde  of  children  necessitated  new  houses  and 
then  you  have  the  considerable  village,  and  round 
about  the  fields  of  tea  and  millet  and  rice  where  the 
various  branches  of  the  family,  men,  women,  chil- 
dren and  babies,  all  take  part  in  planting  or  har- 
vest. 

Especially  in  harvest  time  it  is  no  uncommon 
thing  to  be  able  to  pick  out  three  or  four  genera- 
tions, grinding  the  millet  seed,  or  stripping  the  cot- 
ton fiber,  which  is  shipped  off  to  the  larger  towns 
by  boat. 

The  usual  Chinese  village  houses  in  the  country 
(and  the  farmers  live  in  villages  as  a guard  against 
pirates  and  thieves)  are  one  story  mud  dwellings  with 
thatched  roofs,  or,  when  the  people  rise  in  grade, 
the  homes  are  of  blue-gray  brick  without  mortar, 
built  with  roofs  tiled  in  the  same  color.  In  front 
of  the  house  is  a hard,  beaten  ground  upon  which 
the  thrashing  is  done.  Two  rooms  usually  make 
up  the  home  of  the  prosperous  family,  the  front 
being  the  storage  room  for  the  few  farming  uten- 
sils, while  the  room  in  the  rear  is  kitchen,  dining 
room,  drawing  room  and  sleeping  room  for  a con- 
siderable household.  Light  and  ventilation  are  con- 


244  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


spicuous  by  their  absence.  There  is  no  way  of 
heating  the  houses  and  therefore  windows  which 
admit  the  cold  are  not  popular. 

The  banks  of  the  canals  are  the  popular  rendez- 
vous both  for  work  and  play.  You  often  pass  a 
sociable  family  group  sitting  by  the  water  side ; one 
woman  is  washing  the  rice  in  the  stream,  another 
is  attending  to  the  family  laundry  while  a third  is 
washing  the  common  utensils  of  their  household,  the 
entire  group  occupying  a space  within  a radius  of 
ten  feet.  It  is  fortunate  that  these  rural  folk  have 
learned  to  boil  or  to  cook  everything  that  they  eat. 
Raw  vegetables  and  cold  water  are  taboo.  You  will 
see  these  peasant  folk  drinking  hot  tea  or  hot  wine, 
for  tea  is  the  national  drink  and  every  peasant  who 
has  a few  feet  of  land,  cultivates  a small  tea  patch 
and  prepares  his  drink  by  the  simple  process  of 
pouring  hot  water  on  the  green  leaves.  To  harvest 
these  leaves  for  trade,  he  dries  them  with  a char- 
coal fire  and  tramps  them  for  hours  with  his  naked 
feet  to  get  rid  of  the  remaining  moisture.  He  aft- 
erwards steams  the  lowest  class  of  dust,  presses  it 
and  makes  it  into  solid  blocks  called  “ bricks”;  this 
is  the  “brick  tea,”  the  poorest  and  cheapest  article. 

Not  far  from  the  women  chattering  at  their  work 
along  the  bank,  one  discovers  the  dyer  washing  the 
superfluous  dye  from  the  blue  cotton  cloth  which 
clothes  the  hordes  of  Chinese  millions ; or  a farmer 
is  preparing  the  carcass  of  a goat  or  sheep  for  the 
market.  We  can  see  the  children  leaning  over  rail- 
ings in  the  private  homes  in  the  distance  and  you 
are  sometimes  fortunate  enough  to  catch  the  glimpse 
of  a higher  class  Chinese  woman  with  an  unnat- 
urally red  and  white  face,  laboriously  dressing  her 


ALONG  THE  CANALS  IN  CHINA  245 


dark  oiled  hair  in  front  of  an  odd  shaped  mirror. 
The  mirror  looks  Chinese  but  if  you  examine  it 
closely  you  will  doubtless  find  that  it  was  made  in 
Germany. 

Clam  shell  windows  or  window's  of  paper  are  cus- 
tomary when  the  family  have  any  windows  at  all. 
Once  in  a great  while  you  will  see  in  better  class 
houses,  a pane  of  glass  as  the  center  of  the  window 
with  the  inside  of  clam  shells  set  about  it. 

Even  in  these  out-of-the-way  places,  foreign  in- 
ventions and  conveniences  are  slowly  but  surely 
making  their  way.  The  common  dip  in  a basin  of 
bean  oil  or  the  native  candle  is  being  replaced  in 
the  prosperous  homes  by  lamps  and  kerosene. 
These  lamps  are  invariably  smoky  and  add  one  more 
odor  to  the  variegated  smells  of  the  Chinese  village. 

But  it  is  in  China  as  in  other  places  in  the  Ori- 
ent at  nightfall  that  many  of  the  impressions  of  the 
day  become  fixed  and  vivid.  There  are  some  things 
so  sharply  indented  in  consciousness  as  to  be  un- 
forgetable;  certain  things  Oriental,  are  indelibly 
fixed  in  memory.  The  first  night  on  the  Nile  and 
the  song  of  the  shadoof  men  with  the  warm  air 
of  the  desert  on  your  face;  the  moist  hot  and  still  air 
of  a first  night  with  its  blazing  stars  on  an  Indian 
sea  as  you  sleep  upon  the  deck;  the  patter  of  the 
Nasan’s  sandals  and  the  sliding  of  the  rice  paper 
doors  in  a little  Japanese  country  inn;  these  will  be 
remembered  after  one  forgets  his  foreign  souvenirs 
and  the  society  of  shipboard  and  the  European 
hotels. 

Likewise  a houseboat  night  on  the  canals  in  China 
leaves  a print  on  the  brain. 

As  twilight  approaches  the  singing  and  laughing 


246  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


at  the  great  water  wheels,  which  lift  tons  of  water 
daily  to  irrigate  the  precious  land,  has  ceased.  The 
tired  farmers  are  coming  back  from  the  fields  to 
their  villages,  following  in  groups  of  twos  or  threes 
the  devious,  well-trodden  paths.  The  boats  are  now 
being  tied  up  along  the  canals  and  the  quarreling 
cries  of  the  boatmen  are  hushed.  Soon  the  village 
farmers  can  be  seen  in  shadow  outline  gathering 
with  their  households  about  the  evening  rice  beneath 
the  sheltering  arms  of  some  great  memorial  tree; 
there  are  sounds  of  jests  and  pleasant  story-telling; 
the  tapping  of  pipes  and  the  laughter  of  children 
float  to  our  ears.  As  the  night  comes  on,  the  mist 
is  rising  ghost  like  and  lying  in  great  patches  over 
the  paddy  fields.  There  comes  the  clanking  sound 
of  closing  cottage  doors,  for  rural  China  lies  down 
with  the  sun.  A belated  farmer  hurries  along  with 
small  lighted  lantern  for  the  streets  are  lampless; 
he  stumbles  over  what  you  surmise  is  the  body  of  a 
sleeping  beggar  curled  up  for  the  night  by  the  side 
of  a winding  footpath.  The  shrill  cry  of  dogs  is 
heard  in  a distant  hamlet ; one  by  one  the  little  bean 
oil  lights  go  out  in  the  villages,  and  now  only  the 
heavy  breathing  of  your  boat’s  crew  is  heard  or  the 
evening  breeze  stirring  in  the  reeds  or  the  soft  rip- 
ple of  the  waves  that  break  from  beneath  the  broad 
bows.  You  are  alone  with  the  stars  and  the  sleep- 
ing Chinese  sons  of  toil — and  you  know  that  China, 
timeless,  faithful,  hard-working  China,  is  dreaming 
of  ancestral  palaces  and  tea  fields  where  her  chil- 
dren are  free  from  back-breaking  monotonous  toil. 
We  have  watched  the  night  gods  put  rural  China 
to  sleep,  and  we  cannot  forget. 


XVII 


Young  China  and  Education 

CHINA  furnishes  to-day  the  unique  example  of 
a nation  which  in  five  years  has  completely 
revolutionized  its  educational  system.  Five  years 
ago  I stood  in  the  old  pagoda  tower  overlooking  the 
examination  halls  in  Nanking,  where  13,000  Chinese 
students  had  just  completed  their  last  examination 
under  the  old  Literati  system  of  ancient  Chinese  clas- 
sics. To-day  I have  been  marching  through  modern 
University  buildings  that  might  exist  in  Germany, 
England,  or  America.  These  Universities  have 
eliminated  much  of  the  memorizing  of  old  Confucian 
studies.  They  have  copied  Western  scientific  and 
mechanical  methods.  They  are  preeminently  practi- 
cal. During  these  five  years  the  growth  in  the  num- 
ber of  institutions  and  the  qualitj’-  of  instruction  has 
been  phenomenal.  Educational  missions  have  fur- 
nished the  background  for  a large  part  of  this  ad- 
vance. To-day  the  entire  Chinese  nation  seems  to 
be  awake  to  the  truth  that  education  is  the  hope  of 
China.  This  hope  is  expressed  in  three  Chinese  uni- 
versities, nine  universities  so-called,  and  fifteen  to 
twenty  colleges  maintained  by  foreign  missions;  in 
a military  college  in  Peking;  a medical  college  also 
founded  in  Peking  in  1906  quite  largely  through 
Missionary  influence;  engineering  colleges,  Peyang 
University,  Tientsin;  a school  at  Tang  Shau  with 
three  foreign  professors,  together  with  engineering 

247 


248  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


departments  at  Peking,  the  Polytechnic,  and  the 
University  of  Shansi ; also  seven  industrial  colleges, 
and  a large  number  of  private  institutions  of  sec- 
ondary grade  in  various  parts  of  China. 

In  1905  when  five  Chinese  Commissioners  visited 
the  United  States,  scholarships  were  offered  for 
competitive  examination  among  Chinese  students  by 
Harvard  and  Yale  Universities  and  Wellesley  Col- 
lege. The  results  of  these  scholarships  have  been  a 
growing  number  of  students  both  men  and  women 
who  have  been  sent  out  into  modern  China  equipped 
with  Western  learning.  In  July  1907,  600  candi- 
dates came  up  to  Nanking  to  take  examinations  in 
connection  with  these  scholarships.  Thirteen  stu- 
dents of  this  six  hundred  were  chosen,  of  which  three 
were  women.  Twelve  women  are  now  studying  in 
Great  Britain ; two  women  physicians  trained  in  the 
United  States  are  in  charge  of  a hospital  in 
Kiukiang;  another  Chinese  woman  is  the  head  of  a 
hospital  in  Foochow,  and  still  another  is  editor  of 
a paper  in  Peking.  In  China,  as  in  India  and  Egypt, 
the  educated  Oriental  young  man  is  looking  for  an 
educated  woman  for  a wife.  There  is  no  hope  for 
the  social  order  otherwise.  The  student  who  re- 
turns to  the  old  environment  in  China  after  years 
of  study  in  the  broadening  and  enlightening  atmos- 
phere of  Western  learning,  must  either  find  there  a 
woman  helpmate  and  sympathizer,  one  whose  point 
of  view  is  harmonious  with  his  own,  or,  as  the  only 
other  alternative,  if  he  succeeds  in  remaining  in  his 
home  environment,  he  must  put  off  his  robes  of 
Western  culture  and  become  as  he  was  before,  a 
mere  cog  in  the  wheel  of  century  old  custom  and 
conservative  routine. 


YOUNG  CHINA  AND  EDUCATION  249 


One  of  the  amazing  surprises  comes  from  the  ob- 
servation that  the  experience  of  Britain  in  India 
has  not  affrighted  China.  In  fact  she  seems  to  be 
following  in  the  steps,  mistaken  as  they  are,  of  In- 
dia, gaging  education  in  accordance  with  its 
meretricious  value  as  a means  to  official  appoint- 
ment. This  founding  of  education  and  the  offices  of 
government  on  a competitive  examination  may  work 
in  China.  It  has  never  worked  elsewhere.  To  be 
sure  the  new  products  are  very  different  from  the 
old,  and  the  man  who  has  gone  through  the  more 
practical  Western  training,  which  China  is  pre- 
paring herself  to  give,  is  much  more  capable  of  ad- 
ministering a set  of  new  and  modern  laws  and 
guiding  the  world’s  business  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury than  were  the  literati,  schooled  exclusively  in 
Chinese  classics.  There  is,  however,  a feeling  of 
uncertainty  already  evident  in  China  that  these 
young  Western  trained  students  in  European  clothes 
with  their  glib  English  and  their  revolutionary 
ideas,  lack  something  that  the  old  Chinese,  with  his 
experience  and  his  hard-headed  training  in  business, 
could  afford. 

Japan  for  example,  has  not  thus  built  her  new 
and  modern  civilization.  She  has  sent  to  America 
and  to  Europe  not  merely  her  youngsters,  but  her 
ruling  classes,  and  as  these  men  returned  they  found 
their  old  places  waiting  for  them,  to  which  they  have 
brought  both  the  old  and  the  new  in  a more  truly 
intelligent  amalgam. 

I find  some  of  the  older  Chinese  already  begin- 
ning to  fear  for  this  new,  secular,  Western-trained 
product.  Sir  Kai  Ho  Kai  said  to  me  in  Hongkong 
that  they  had  placed  two  Chinese  professors  in  the 


250  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


new  Hongkong  University  with  the  particular  object 
of  training  the  students  in  the  ancient  Chinese  clas- 
sics for  education  in  ethics  and  moral  restraint, 
lest  the  tremendous  sweep  of  the  new  utilitarian 
studies  should  carry  them  too  far  away  from  the 
age  long  traditions  of  China.  The  educators  of  this 
country  may  well  study  the  results  of  this  machine 
examination  method  for  making  men  of  affairs, 
which  are  now  being  reaped  in  India.  Not  all  the 
problems  of  an  Oriental  country  are  to  be  solved 
by  turning  out  as  many  civil  servants  as  possible 
from  what  has  been  aptly  styled  “The  Western  edu- 
cation sausage  machine.”  Western  learning  is  go- 
ing to  he  good  for  China  but  it  must  be  made  good 
in  China  and  its  representatives  need  to  be  reminded 
frequently  that  it  is  in  China  and  not  in  Germany 
nor  the  United  States  that  they  are  to  work  out 
their  salvation  with  these  new  ideas.  One  cannot 
but  feel  that  at  present  Western  education  is  com- 
ing a bit  too  rapidly  to  be  permanently  efficient. 

From  1895  to  1908  it  seemed  that  Japan  was  to 
be  the  chief  influence  in  Chinese  education.  As 
many  as  15,000  students  were  at  one  time  studying 
in  the  Japanese  Empire  and  returning  to  bring  Jap- 
anese learning,  even  to  the  most  remote  Provinces 
of  China.  It  seemed  to  be  very  much  easier  and 
much  less  expensive  to  get  education  from  a nation 
that  had  signally  proved  its  military  strength  over 
a European  Power.  Then,  too,  the  Chinese  remem- 
bered how  in  1880  the  Viceroy  of  Nanking  sent 
forty  students  to  the  United  States  promising  them 
employment  and  offices-  upon  their  return,  and  how 
these  students  returning  to  China  had  brought  back 
merely  the  veneer  of  habits  and  dress  of  the  West 


The  wife  of  a Chinese  farmer  on  wash-day 


A Chinese  farmer  plowing  with  the  rude  implement  of  his  forefathers  drawn  by  a water  buffalo 


YOUNG  CHINA  AND  EDUCATION  251 


and  how  these  youth  in  that  disillusionment  and 
disappointment  which  is  the  seed  of  discontent,  for 
the  most  part  had  been  obliged  to  return  to  their 
old  ways  of  living  and  became  strongly  anti-foreign. 
The  government  was  not  ready  for  these  young  re- 
formers. China  still  was  clinging  to  her  conserva- 
tism. Imperial  officers  had  not  then  been  sent 
throughout  the  world  to  study  modern  schemes  of 
commerce  and  soldiery.  To  be  sure  a more  suc- 
cessful experiment  was  tried  when  in  1876  forty-six 
students  were  sent  out  by  the  Foochow  Arsenal  to 
study  ship  building  and  navigation.  These  men  on 
their  return  were  successful  in  finding  places  in  the 
diplomatic  service,  and  helped  in  the  awakening  de- 
sire of  China  for  a place  in  a world  wide  military 
policy.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  Western 
trained  students  of  the  eighties  found  the  atmos- 
phere of  China  hardly  congenial  for  the  exercise  of 
their  newly  trained  powers. 

Japan,  herself,  assisted  in  wrecking  her  prospects 
of  becoming  a permanent  tutor  of  China.  Self-con- 
fident in  her  own  recent  successes,  she  began  to  pre- 
sent to  young  China  a superficial  and  secular  type 
of  education,  and  the  students  who  studied  under 
her  discipline  often  returned  to  be  disturbing  factors 
and  revolutionary  in  tendency,  much  to  the  conster- 
nation of  quiet,  peace-loving  China. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  America,  by  a wise 
foresight,  returned  the  indemnity  fund  required  of 
China  in  view  of  the  Boxer  outrages,  with  a sug- 
gestion that  the  money  he  spent  upon  education. 
This  turned  the  tide  of  students  toward  the  United 
States,  until  at  present  there  are  717  Chinese  stu- 
dents in  American  universities  of  whom  443  are  in 


252  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


private  and  the  remainder  in  Government  institu- 
tions. Yale  University  has  founded  a college  at 
Changsha,  with  fourteen  American  professors  and 
a large  number  of  Chinese  instructors,  where  she 
hopes  to  reproduce  the  same  kind  of  training  as  is 
carried  on  in  America  at  New  Haven.  Various 
recently  founded  American  college  missions,  such 
as  the  University  of  Pennsylvania’s  medical  school 
in  Canton,  are  also  adding  to  the  American  influ- 
ence in  Chinese  education. 

There  is  to  be  sure,  that  ambitious  plan  of  Rev. 
Lord  W.  Gascoyne  Cecil  who  has  asked  the  British 
public  for  125,000  pounds  for  the  endowment  of  an 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  University  in  China,  to- 
gether with  a request  for  a like  sum  from  America. 
This  institution  aims  to  counteract  if  possible,  the 
ultra  materialistic  and  practical  education  which 
the  Chinese  have  copied  so  largely  from  the  United 
States.  The  result  of  this  plan  is  still  doubtful. 
Important  as  it  is  to  stem  the  tide  of  the  education 
which  seems  to  be  riveting  its  eyes  entirely  upon 
dollars,  getting  the  husk  rather  than  the  kernel  of 
Western  learning,  the  tide  of  the  times  is  appar- 
ently too  strong  for  this  type  of  cultural  institution 
in  China.  A.  R.  Colquhoun  in  speaking  of  this  plan 
of  Lord  Cecil  says: 

Whether  any  transplantation  of  University  customs  or 
even  personalities  can  supply  the  atmosphere  of  Oxford  or 
Cambridge,  remains  to  be  seen,  and  it  is  more  likely  that  the 
frank  materialism  and  the  more  democratic  methods  of 
American  Universities  (in  which  a large  proportion  of 
Western  trained  students  graduate)  will  flavor  the  new 
China  too  strongly  to  allow  of  a more  subtle  and  delicate 
aroma. 


YOUNG  CHINA  AND  EDUCATION  253 


And  in  our  opinion  this  inability  of  the  West  to 
transplant  Western  culture  in  old  China  may  not 
be  entirely  unfortunate,  especially  at  this  time. 
For  while  China  must  needs  receive  her  practical 
methods  of  scientific  education  from  the  West,  she 
may  not  need  to  a like  extent  to  import  her  cul- 
ture or  her  ethics.  In  fact  it  is  largely  in  accord- 
ance with  the  way  in  which  she  maintains  the  body 
of  her  own  moral  and  spiritual  civilization  that  her 
Western  science  and  mechanical  arts  will  flourish. 
You  can  give  a people  methods  of  doing  things,  but 
you  cannot  make  her  men. 

She  must  do  that  for  herself,  and  one  who  is  at 
all  acquainted  with  China  must  feel  that  the  in- 
herent capacity  of  this  old  nation  which,  for  two  or 
three  thousand  years,  has  been  capable  of  holding 
to  a social  and  ethical  ideal,  may  also  be  trusted  in 
this  grave  crisis  of  her  modernity,  to  find  the  way 
to  inspire  her  sons  and  quicken  their  spirit. 


XVIII 


Modernizing  the  Filipinos 

FOR  reasons  adequately  obvious  to  me  at  the 
time,  during  the  entire  three  days  of  the  six 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  miles  of  rolling  sea  from 
Hongkong  to  Manila,  in  one  of  the  smallest  and 
most  sinfully  unsteady  steamers  allowed  to  keep 
afloat,  I recalled  frequently  a remark  of  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  upon  his  first  crossing  to  Europe. 
It  was  to  the  effect  that,  previous  to  that  time,  he 
had  contributed  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly  but 
never  before  that  trip  had  he  contributed  to  the  At- 
lantic daily. 

Perhaps  it  was  because  of  this  disturbed  intro- 
duction, or  possibly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  West- 
ern mind  and  constitution  get  jaded  even  unto  cyn- 
icism by  a year  or  more  of  travel  and  investigation 
in  Oriental  lands;  anyhow,  my  anticipated  interest 
and  enthusiasm  in  the  Islands,  over  which,  through 
the  fortunes  of  war,  the  Stars  and  Stripes  of  my 
country  float,  were  not  immediately  forthcoming. 

Apart  from  the  superior,  industrial  training  and 
governmental  reforms  enacted  by  my  countrymen 
there,  also  excepting  the  presence  of  the  biggest 
and  best  conducted  jail  (with  I might  add,  the 
largest  number  of  inmates,  I have  ever  seen  any 
where  on  earth),  I found  comparatively  little  to 
inspire  one  with  the  presence  or  with  the  hope  even 

of  a great  people  in  the  Philippines.  The  East  In- 

254 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  255 


dians,  despite  their  many  weaknesses,  impress  one 
as  an  intelligent  and  spiritual  race,  capable  also  of 
slow  but  decided  advance  through  training.  The 
Chinese  lead  the  world  in  industry,  and  they  have 
a great  saving  common  sense;  while  any  extended 
study  of  the  Sons  of  Nippon,  brings  the  realization 
of  an  alert  population,  racially  rich  in  patriotism 
and  possessed  with  a distinct  individuality.  The 
Filipinos,  however,  give  one  the  impression  of  a 
race  still  in  the  shadows  of  barbarism,  shifty  when 
educated,  opportunists  as  politicians,  without  deep 
attachment  to  any  historical  background,  and, 
seemingly  more  unreliable  and  trivial  in  serious 
purpose  and  religion  than  any  other  considerable 
section  of  humanity  in  the  Far  East. 

The  conception  may  he  false  and  too  common  of 
looking  for  people  of  insight  and  imagination  be- 
neath the  southern  cross.  We  somehow  expect 
romance,  intense  individuality  and  tradition  among 
islands  that  “lift  their  fronded  palms  in  air,” 
and  amongst  people  secluded  from  the  mod- 
ern world’s  unceasing  noise  and  strife,  where  only 
soft  winds  blow  across  sunlit  seas  upon  lands  where 
it  is  always  afternoon. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  when  the  Western  traveler  is 
fairly  torn  asunder,  as  to  both  body  and  temper, 
by  obstreperous  and  almost  carnivorous  riksliaw 
coolies  and  carriage  drivers  before  he  reaches  his 
hotel;  and  when  he  arrives  thereunto  (in  this  case 
a newly  erected  structure,  resembling  The  Potter 
at  Santa  Barbara,  upon  the  miasmic  marshes  that 
now  form  the  Manila  waterfront),  to  find  the  prices 
soaring  at  the  only  decent  hotel  in  town  to  four 
and  six  American  dollars  a day;  where  carriage 


256  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


hire  is  doubled  for  the  hotel  guests  and  where 
breakfast  foods  and  pork  chops  cost  more  than  they 
do  at  the  Waldorf  or  the  London  Carlton,  he  begins, 
as  an  American,  to  feel  much  at  home.  He  cer- 
tainly has  no  reason  to  dream  that  he  is  visiting  the 
Orient.  But  for  the  color  of  the  servants,  he  might 
imagine  himself  more  readily  at  some  Marlbor- 
ough-Blenheim  at  Atlantic  City  or  at  Brighton  at 
the  summit  of  the  high-cost-of-living  season. 

The  Filipinos  seemed  to  have  copied  most  of  our 
American  vices,  and  as  yet  to  be  quite  unconscious 
of  any  American  virtues.  Not  having  any  heredi- 
tary body  of  convictions  and  customs  of  their  own, 
they  have  not  seemed  to  think  of  searching  for  such 
foundation  in  the  civilization  of  their  new  rulers. 
The  most  easily  adaptable  people  imaginable,  they 
have  copied  the  last  fashion  in  hats  and  shoes  from 
“Frisco”  and  Chicago,  and,  unlike  the  Japanese 
who  are  also  arch  imitators,  have  not  thought  of 
wearing  their  modern  habiliments  as  Easterners, 
but  are  quite  willing  to  give  their  souls  as  well  as 
their  chapeaux  in  exchange  for  something  Occi- 
dental. If  readiness  to  ape  others,  and  suscepti- 
bility to  change  are  marks  of  self-governing  capac- 
ity, the  Jones  bill  should  have  been  passed  for  the 
Filipino  part  of  these  islands  some  years  ago.  In 
almost  every  other  characteristic  demanded  by  a 
sturdy  and  independent  selfhood,  individual  or  na- 
tional, the  inhabitants  of  these  Islands  give  the  im- 
pression of  conspicuous  singularity  among  Far 
Eastern  peoples. 

To  be  sure  it  is  a comparatively  small  population 
— eight  million  souls — but  the  territory,  comprising 
some  three  thousand,  one  hundred  and  forty-one 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  257 


islands  of  all  sizes  and  conditions  of  civilization  and 
barbarity,  contains  115,026  square  miles,  a larger 
arable  area  than  that  supporting  50,000,000  Japa- 
nese. The  country,  moreover,  has  had  a chance  for 
development  that  is  measured  by  centuries,  Manila 
being  founded  in  1571,  shortly  after  the  islands 
were  discovered  by  Ferdinand  Magellan. 

There  is  a kind  of  lives-there-a-man-with-soul-so- 
dead  sensation,  trickling  up  and  down  the  spinal 
column  of  most  Americans  as,  after  months  of 
Asiatic  wanderings,  they  look  out  of  their  cabin 
windows  on  a tropical  morning  upon  the  headlands 
of  Luzon,  and  sailing  calmly  into  Manila  Bay,  pass 
the  rocky  island  of  Corregdor,  and  get  a glimpse  of 
the  floating  colors  at  Cavite. 

The  American  is  more  or  less  mindful  of  that 
May  day  in  1898  when,  by  one  tragic  stroke,  Ad- 
miral Dewey  and  his  fleet  ended  Castilian  suprem- 
acy in  the  East  and  involved  the  non-colonizing 
American  in  that  which  has  been  for  this  Occidental 
of  the  Occident,  one  of  the  most  incongruous  and 
unsatisfactory  enterprises  of  his  history. 

When  one  sallies  forth  to  get  his  bearings  and 
Orientation — traveler-like — after  his  first  dinner  in 
a new  land,  there  are  signs  enough  of  Yankeedom 
to  make  the  native  of  the  United  States  quite  com- 
fortable. 

It  is  something  to  be  able  to  wander  through 
streets  whose  signs  talk  to  you  of  Pear’s  soap,  and 
Boston  garters,  and  to  feel  again  real  ice-cold, 
chocolate  soda  water  percolating  into  your  anatomy 
through  a regulation,  dust-specked  straw  in  an  all- 
American  drug  store,  while  your  listless  eyes  gloat 
upon  advertisements  of  Bull  Durham  and  fall  per- 


258  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


chance  upon  the  serene  undying  face  of  Mrs.  Lydia 
Pinkham.  There  are,  indeed,  certain  parts  of 
Manila,  this  metropolis  of  our  American  far  flung 
battle  line,  11,600  miles  from  New  York  via  Suez, 
with  its  nearly  one-half  million  of  people,  where, 
but  for  the  Spanish  padres,  two-wheeled  sulkies 
and  an  occasional  touch  of  medievalism  in  an  old 
cathedral,  you  might  easily  feel  that  you  had 
dropped  by  mistake  into  a city  of  Texas  near  the 
Mexican  border.  The  Filipinos  however,  in  their 
latest  style  straw  hats  and  turned  up  trousers,  have 
out- Americanized  the  Mexican  quite  as  truly  as  they 
have  forgotten  many  of  the  habits  and  customs  of 
their  former  European  masters. 

I found  the  “ Government’’  was  in  its  summer 
home  at  Banio  when  we  arrived,  and  after  present- 
ing my  letters  of  introduction,  and  making  my 
plans  for  the  investigation  of  schools  and  the  vari- 
ous institutions  of  the  Islands,  we  started  properly 
guided  by  a Filipino  teacher  from  the  University 
of  the  Philippines,  to  see  a bit  of  the  real  country 
life  of  the  islands ; for  one  soon  finds  that  it  is  not 
in  the  changing  Westernizing  hybridism  of  Asiatic 
cities,  but  in  the  children  of  the  land  that  one  reads 
most  quickly  and  surely  the  spirit  and  the  charac- 
ter of  a people. 

It  was  on  this  journey,  at  stations  and  at  small 
villages  where  the  lodgings  are  huts  of  bamboo  and 
straw  lifted  high  on  poles,  where  cock  fighting  rather 
than  agriculture,  seems  to  consume  the  chief  time 
and  thought  of  many  of  the  inhabitants,  and  where 
the  beauty  of  flowers  and  the  cultured  palms  of  the 
Buddhist’s  Ceylon  and  Burma  were  absent,  and  the 
banana  tree  is  the  only  resource  standing  between 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  259 


the  Filipino  and  starvation,  that  we  caught  the  de- 
pression of  this  passive,  pulseless  land. 

I talked  en  route  with  one  of  the  one  thousand  or 
more  Americans  who  have  married  Filipino  wives. 
His  status  ( or  was  it  the  influence  and  the  ambition- 
less air  of  his  misalliance?)  was  indicated  by  the  fol- 
lowing narration,  which  I give  as  nearly  as  possible 
in  his  own  words,  in  answer  to  my  question  regard- 
ing his  family  life: 

You  know  these  Filipino  women  gamble  too  much,  but  I 
fixed  my  wife  all  right.  I told  her  that  if  I found  her 

gambling  my  money  away  again,  I would  lick out  of 

her!  You  know  I’m  the  only  one  in  the  bunch  up  our  way 
who  makes  steady  money ; the  rest  are  all  loafers  and  they 
think  I’m  an  easy  mark. 

My  Filipino  teacher  guide  took  me  to  the  country 
village  where  he  was  born.  It  consisted  of  perhaps 
two  score  of  dilapidated  straw  roofed  houses,  with 
two  or  three  old  Castilian-like  homes,  filled  with  the 
same  kind  of  half-Occidentalized  furniture  and  orna- 
ments that  I found  in  the  home  of  my  Bedouin  Chief 
in  the  Egyptian  Fayoum.  The  streets  were  de- 
serted. There  was  no  hum  of  pastoral  industry, 
nothing  resembling  the  laborious  Nilot  farmers,  no 
busy  shops  like  the  Indian  and  Chinese  villages,  no 
lines  of  fellaheen  women  with  pitcher  clothed  heads, 
singing  as  they  wind  their  graceful  way  homeward 
from  the  Nile,  happy  in  the  simple  rural  happiness 
of  activity  and  home-making. 

Here,  it  was  the  burden  of  the  tropics.  The  air 
was  drowsy  with  sleepy  indolence  that  seemed  to  he 
a contagion.  My  professor,  who  was  educated  in 
America  and  had  a teaching  position  in  Manila, 


260  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


was  evidently  infected  by  it,  for  be  said,  “Yon  know, 
I am  tempted  to  come  back  here  to  my  old  Filipino 
borne  and  settle  down” 

The  only  real  life  apparent  in  this  town  consisted 
of  a crowd  of  nondescript  young  men  whom  we  dis- 
covered in  a backyard  pruning  their  roosters  for  a 
cock-fight.  This  was  something  doing  at  least,  and 
I eagerly  took  their  pictures  in  various  stages  of 
the  national  sport.  To  the  Westerner,  the  game  is 
weak  and  cruel  and  “not  worth  the  candle.”  Sharp 
knives  are  attached  to  the  feet  of  the  cocks,  which 
soon  tear  the  throats  of  their  opponents.  In  a 
circle  round  about,  an  indolent  crowd  squat  and  put 
up  their  few  pesos  on  the  event. 

The  Moslem  Morro  and  the  fighting  tribes  of  Min- 
dano,  with  their  barbarism  and  their  bolos,  im- 
pressed me  as  being  far  more  vigorous  at  least  than 
the  degenerating  and  stagnating  inhabitants  of  cer- 
tain Filipino  rural  villages.  Not  even  the  energetic 
Americanism,  which  has  for  more  than  a decade  been 
poured  into  these  islands,  seems  capable  for  Fili- 
pino regeneration.  But  it  is  for  such  a vast  mission 
of  civilization,  that  we  have  sent  twenty  thousand 
American  sons  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  charging 
them  in  the  words  of  Kipling : 

Go  bind  your  sons  to  exile 
To  serve  your  captives’  need: 

To  wait  in  heavy  harness 

On  fluttered  folk  and  wild, — 

Your  new-caught,  sullen  peoples, 

Half-devil  and  half-child. 

And  these  Americans,  military  or  official,  have  not 
been  recreant  to  their  new  and  gigantic  tasks.  In 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  261 


less  than  fifteen  years,  they  have  brought  to  a de- 
cadent, belated  land,  the  rejuvenation  of  a scientific 
and  industrial  new  birth.  They  have  taken  this 
monsoon,  semi-tropical  land  for  which  the  United 
States  paid  $20,000,000  indemnity  to  Spain,  and  have 
touched  it  with  the  magic  wand  of  modernity.  New 
and  broad  highways — sanitary  improvements — city 
buildings  of  Western  pattern — trolley  cars  and  ice 
plants — pure  water — and  a system  of  industrial  and 
primary  education  hardly  surpassed  in  Asia;  all 
these  things  have  sprung  up,  as  in  the  night,  be- 
fore the  inexperienced  but  ever-efficient  genius 
of  the  American,  arch-apostle  of  utilitarian  prog- 
ress. 

Five  hundred  miles  of  steam  railways  now  carry 
the  population  and  the  products  of  the  soil  which 
are  mainly  sugar,  hemp,  rice,  cocoa-nut,  coffee,  and 
lumber.  These  same  colonists  have  converted  the 
city  of  Manila,  which,  only  a few  years  ago,  served 
as  a dumping  ground  and  sanctuary  for  grafters 
and  criminals  and  the  expatriated  men  and  women 
of  Eastern  Asia,  worse  even  than  any  Levantine 
Port  Said,  into  a city  of  order  and  cleanliness. 
They  have  carried  out  the  idea  of  the  early  gov- 
ernors, and  have  placed  Filipinos  upon  the  Govern- 
ing Commission,  teaching  them  the  fundamental 
principles  of  self-government  by  participation  in 
local  authority — a thing  which  England  did  not  learn 
to  do  until  she  had  been  fifty  years  in  India,  and 
then  not  entirely  at  her  own  unaided  volition. 

The  American  in  the  Philippines  also  has  not 
feared  to  tackle  that  most  difficult  of  all  difficult 
questions  in  the  Orient  involving  religion,  and  the 
settlement  of  the  issues  relative  to  the  Friars’  lands, 


262  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


seems  to  meet  with  general  satisfaction  among 
people  of  various  classes. 

There  has  also  been  founded  and  equipped  the 
University  of  the  Philippines,  favorably  comparing 
with  institutions  of  this  order  in  the  Orient.  There 
have  been  gathered  nearly  one-half  million  children 
into  schools  that  are  under  supervision.  One  finds 
a first-class  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 
system,  together  with  a brace  of  missionary  activi- 
ties including  hostels  and  schools  for  both  boys  and 
girls.  The  Americans  have  also  begun  and  have 
accomplished  much  in  the  standardization  of  Eng- 
lish as  a medium  in  education,  one  of  the  first  neces- 
sities in  producing  a unified,  educational  policy  in 
the  Orient. 

Through  the  able  leadership  of  the  late  Director 
of  Education,  Mr.  Frank  R.  White,  to  whose  courtesy 
and  kindness  visitors  and  investigators  feel  deeply 
indebted,  one  sees  here  advances  in  craftsmanship 
and  trades-schools  that  may  be  studied  with  profit 
by  both  Americans  and  Europeans,  being  examples 
of  enterprising  genius,  unique  in  this  branch  of  edu- 
cational training. 

For  days,  under  the  conduct  of  trained  experts 
having  in  charge  the  manual  training  and  trades- 
schools,  I visited  the  institutions  which  are  laying 
the  permanent  foundations  for  future  success  in  the 
Philippines.  Designing,  carpentry,  machine  shops, 
basket-making  and  domestic  science  are  carried  on 
under  the  most  modern  circumstances  of  machinery 
and  method.  One  sees  almost  every  practical  art 
from  the  dexterous  stripping  of  the  Tipon-tipon  palm 
to  be  converted  into  the  weaving  of  a lunch  basket, 
to  the  manufacture  of  an  automobile  in  which  the 


mt. 


A woman  selling  bread  in  a Bombay  street 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  263 


educational  officials  ride  in  tlieir  tours  of  inspec- 
tion. 

The  educational  creed  of  the  islands  is  epitomized 
in  the  words  of  Lowell,  which  the  educational 
director  has  placed  as  a foreword  in  his  Philippine 
Craftsman  and  incarnated  in  his  working  policy: 

No  man  is  born  into  the  world  whose  work  is  not  born 
with  him;  there  is  always  work  and  tools  to  work  withal, 
for  those  who  will ; and  blessed  are  the  horny  hands  of  toil ! 

Although  the  American  occupation  of  the  Philip- 
pines has  brought  about  advances  that  are  revolu- 
tionary in  their  beneficial  influence  and  sweep,  the 
problems  of  the  islands  are  ever  present  in  the  minds 
of  the  foreigners  who  are  either  temporarily  or  per- 
manently finding  here  their  homes. 

One  of  'these  problems  arises  from  the  fact  that 
the  islands  are  rich  in  timber  lands,  and  also  con- 
tain fine  possibilities  for  the  growing  of  such 
products  as  rice,  cocoanuts,  tobacco  and  other  trop- 
ical crops,  but  that,  as  yet,  American  capital  has 
found  investment  in  these  lines  to  be  attended  with 
considerable  risk. 

Some  friends  of  mine  not  long  ago  sent  a repre- 
sentative to  the  Philippines  to  look  up  the  feasibility 
of  lumber  investments.  The  firm  was  a wealthy 
one  and  capable  of  putting  in  large  sums  of  money 
if  a report  from  their  agent  was  favorable.  He 
returned  to  say  that  although  he  found  sections  rich 
in  timber  land,  the  inaccessibility  of  these  sections 
and  the  difficulties  of  securing  labor  of  the  right 
sort,  together  with  many  problems  connected  with 
transportation,  made  such  investment  most  uncer- 
tain and  problematical. 


264  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


I talked  with  a group  of  Americans  who  had  made 
a trip  to  the  Philippines  especially  for  the  purpose 
of  investing  in  cocoanut  plantations,  but  upon  hear- 
ing of  the  impediments  attendant  upon  this  tropical 
industry,  the  discovery  and  preparation  of  the  soil, 
the  securing  of  the  right  exposure,  the  labor  of  pre- 
paring copra  and  many  other  difficulties  connected 
therewith,  abandoned  the  idea  as  impracticable. 

A further  large  problem  facing  prospective  in- 
vestors is  the  problem  of  labor.  If  the  Chinese 
could  be  employed  in  the  islands,  many  of  the  doubt- 
ful questions  of  tropical  cultivation  undoubtedly 
would  be  solved.  Filipino  labor  has  not  proved 
especially  profitable  though  modern  machinery 
is  slowly  being  utilized  to  advantage.  The  Chinese, 
however,  are  to  the  manner  born  upon  Eastern 
land,  and  have  already  turned  the  tide  of  in- 
dustry in  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  Java.  On 
the  other  hand  it  is  thought,  and  probably  it  is 
true,  that  the  introduction  of  Chinese  labor  in  the 
Philippines  would  work  to  the  decided  disadvantage 
of  the  Filipino,  if  it  did  not  entirely  deprive  bim  of 
a place  in  the  smaller  industries  of  the  islands. 

An  ever-present  difficulty  is  that  of  legislating  at 
home  for  a people  who  live  nearly  12,000  miles  away. 
There  is  in  America,  and  naturally  enough,  no  such 
general  knowledge  and  no  such  settled  administra- 
tive policy  governing  colonies  as  that  which  is  found 
connecting  the  British  Parliament  with  its  Asiatic 
dependencies.  The  policy  of  governing  India,  for 
example,  is  in  the  main,  a generally  conceded  and 
settled  one,  going  on  steadily  like  the  English  Con- 
stitution, more  or  less  regardless  of  Viceroys  and 
changing  home  ministries. 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  265 


In  the  Philippines,  contrariwise,  the  shifting  of 
party  administrations  at  home  are  inclined  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  disturbed  and  uncertain  conditions. 

My  visit  to  these  islands  occurred  at  a time  of 
such  unrest,  due  not  only  to  unknown  or  undeter- 
mined plans  as  regards  the  best  things  for  these 
islands,  but  also,  one  is  bound  to  believe,  to  the 
ignorance  of  legislators  concerning  Asiatic  situa- 
tions and  peoples.  One  of  the  first  pieces  of  news 
that  greeted  me  upon  arrival  at  Manila,  was  the 
dubious  intelligence  that  the  Government  revenues 
had  been  falling  off  five  hundred  thousand  pesos  a 
month  for  several  months,  and  the  reason  given  by 
the  officials  was  that  a new  political  administration 
at  home,  with  a somewhat  different  attitude  toward 
the  self-government  of  the  islands,  was  throwing 
out  of  balance  the  whole  system  of  trade  and  busi- 
ness conditions.  Without  going  into  the  merits  or 
demerits  of  the  case,  one  could  easily  see  that  all 
departments  were  being  affected  by  the  change. 

The  educational  officials  and  directors  were  feel- 
ing the  insecurity  of  trying  to  work  out  advance 
policies  that  had  been  made  to  cover  a period  of 
years.  I talked  with  many  Filipino  politicians  also, 
whose  views  varied  to  be  sure,  as  widely  as  most 
politicians  ’ views  vary  in  both  the  East  and  the 
West,  but  regarding  one  question  all  were  more  or 
less  agreed.  That  question  was  “the  Philippines 
for  the  Filipinos.”  The  attitude  was  not  unlike  that 
which  one  finds  to-day  in  the  new  nationalism  of 
Egypt,  India  and  in  fact,  in  the  political  attitude  of 
every  subject  race  in  the  Orient. 

One  prominent  native  official  declared:  “It — 
self-government — may  come  to  our  islands  in  eight 


266  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


months;  it  may  linger  for  a year  or  more,  but  our 
people  about  Manila  at  least  are  thrilled  with  the 
expectation  of  some  form  of  independent  self-con- 
trol of  the  country  on  the  part  of  the  native  inhabit- 
ants.” 

One  who  has  not  been  “on  the  ground,”  can  not 
possibly  conceive  of  the  changes  in  sentiment  that 
can  be  brought  about  amongst  an  Oriental  people 
by  that  which  may  seem  to  be,  at  the  base  of  home 
government,  a mere  reiteration  of  policy.  No  one, 
I am  sure,  if  he  had  not  seen  it  with  his  own  eyes, 
could  appreciate  the  precarious  unsettledness  into 
which  the  discussions  in  Congress  regarding  the 
Jones  bill  have  thrown  the  foreign  as  well  as  the 
native  population  in  the  Philippines. 

There  are  many  misunderstandings  growing  out 
of  distance  and  the  contrasts  between  the  mental 
point  of  view  of  America  and  Asia,  but  the  problem 
which  is  always  uppermost  both  in  the  United 
States  and  in  these  islands,  is  associated  with  the 
self-independence  of  these  people,  whether  or  when 
it  should  come  and  by  what  means  it  should  be 
brought  about.  We  are  told  that  a certain  diplomat 
who  was  closely  associated  with  President  McKinley 
in  1898,  stated  that  the  Philippines  were  annexed 
because  no  one  could  suggest  any  other  feasible  way 
of  dealing  with  them. 

As  far  as  one  can  learn  from  association  with 
those  who  have  reason  to  know  most  accurately  the 
temper  and  the  life  of  these  people,  there  is  but  one 
opinion  at  present  amongst  officials  and  American 
colonists  in  the  islands.  This  opinion  is  to  the  effect 
that  for  the  present  and  for  a long  time  to  come, 
the  United  States  must  remain  at  the  helm  of  gov- 


MODERNIZING  THE  FILIPINOS  267 


eminent  in  order  to  save  the  islanders  from  them- 
selves or  to  obviate  an  exchange  in  the  islands  of 
government  by  the  United  States,  to  government 
by  another  European  nation  or  by  Japan.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  the  wilder  tribes,  which  are  by 
no  means  civilized,  as  frequent  outbreaks  prove, 
because  of  their  powerful  fighting  qualities,  at  pres- 
ent wo  aid  overthrow  any  Filipino  government  that 
might  be  left  unprotected  by  Uncle  Sam’s  troops, 
making  necessary  intervention  by  some  stronger 
power  a veritable  necessity. 

Those  who  have  contrasted  the  character  and  abil- 
ity of  the  East  Indians,  for  example,  and  their  abil- 
ity to  rule  themselves,  with  the  heterogeneous  views 
and  capabilities  of  these  island  children,  are  gener- 
ally united  in  the  opinion  that  the  intelligent  Indian 
should  be  given  self-government  generations  ahead 
of  the  Filipino.  On  the  contrary,  the  American 
Government  is  based  upon  the  conception  of  freedom 
in  a way  that  British  government  and  colonization 
cannot  fully  understand  or  sympathetically  appre- 
ciate. The  United  States,  to  be  consistent  there- 
fore, must  take  the  position  that  the  general 
principles  which  control  at  home  must  be  given, 
sooner  or  later,  the  opportunity  to  express  them- 
selves in  each  of  its  tributary  states  or  dependencies. 
In  other  words,  the  Philippines  furnish  the  some- 
what unique  meeting-ground  between  ideal  theories 
and  practical  politics.  Here  we  have  a melting-pot 
in  which  are  seething  the  diverse  problems  known 
in  a half-dozen  of  Asiatic  areas,  combined  with  the 
multitude  of  Western  administrative  Republican 
ideas  and  forces  which  have  not  yet  been  brought 
to  full  fruition  in  America. 


268  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  Federal  official  finds  himself  more  or  less 
distracted  between  his  practical  desire  to  follow 
England  "with  an  iron  hand  of  authoritative  ruler- 
ship,  and  his  own  inherent  temperament  and  train- 
ing which  would  give  the  ‘ ‘ square  deal  ’ ’ of  statehood 
to  these  people.  Add  to  these  conflicting  sentiments 
a constant  stirring  of  the  caldron  by  the  ever- 
changing  partisan  politics  at  home,  and  you  have  the 
political  dilemma  of  the  Philippine  Islands.  The 
end  is  not  yet,  and  in  fact  the  end  cannot  be  prophe- 
sied with  any  accuracy.  In  the  way  of  the  English- 
men, the  best  we  seem  to  be  able  to  do  at  present  is 
to  play  the  game  of  civilizing  and  modernizing  in 
accordance  with  the  plan  already  so  wisely  and  suc- 
cessfully inaugurated,  and  trust  in  the  “muddling 
through”  idea,  assisted  by  developments  which  at 
present  can  only  be  guessed.  Of  one  thing  we  are 
sure,  the  United  States  has  put  its  hand  to  the  plow 
and  it  cannot  look  back.  In  all  probability  there 
are  more  problems  ahead  than  those  which  have 
already  been  encountered.  It  is  a great  job  and  a 
fine  one,  but  when  it  is  eventually  accomplished,  one 
can  have  little  doubt  but  that  the  islander  of  these 
southern  tropical  seas  will  have  grown  to  somewhat 
of  the  stature  and  the  independent  individuality  of 
the  free-born  American. 


xrs 


In  the  Real  Japan 

UNTIL  yon  have  slept  for  weeks  beneath  a 
padded  foutan  on  the  floor  of  a Japanese 
house ; until  you  have  boiled  your  flesh  in  a hot  bath- 
tub in  a rural  Japanese  inn,  so  that  your  skin  re- 
sembles in  color  the  lobsters  served  in  the  night 
restaurants  of  Broadway,  you  have  still  to  discover 
the  reality  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom.  Unless  you 
have  drunk  “O-cha”  at  every  hour  of  the  day  or 
night,  until  you  are  ashamed  to  look  a tea  chest  in 
the  face;  until  you  have  been  lulled  to  sleep  by  the 
watchman’s  clap-clap  of  brass,  as  he  passes  by 
your  rice  paper  doors  at  night,  or  have  been  awak- 
ened by  the  patter  of  the  Nasan’s  feet,  as  she  comes 
to  light  your  brazier  in  the  early  light,  you  have  yet 
something  to  learn  of  the  life  of  Japan  as  it  is  to-day. 
Until,  furthermore,  you  have  learned  how  to  be 
happy  though  sitting  shoeless  and  cross-legged  on 
your  mats  in  a chairless  room,  and  have  learned  to 
love  the  sound  of  waterfalls  and  the  tinkling  of 
temple  bells ; until  these  with  a hundred  other  local 
sights,  sounds,  smells,  and  physical  sensations  have 
mixed  with  the  currents  of  your  Western  blood,  I 
venture  to  say  you  will  not  love  nor  truly  sympa- 
thize with  one  of  the  most  fascinating  and  romantic 
set  of  folks  in  all  God’s  wonderful  creation. 

You  have  your  choice  in  a visit  to  Japan.  You 
can  go  to  a European,  accoutered  hotel  and  eat  in 

269 


270  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


different  imitations  of  yonr  continental  table  d’hote 
meals  at  seven  dollars  per  diem  and  at  night  be 
guided  by  a professional  half-thief  through  the 
streets  of  Tokyo’s  Yosliiwara,  accumulating  Japa- 
nese bric-a-brac,  kimonos,  and  lacquer  ash-trays  en 
route,  and  you  will  go  home  to  call  the  Japanese 
tricky  and  arrogant  and  every  woman  a daughter 
of  shame.  On  the  other  hand  you  can  assert  your 
independence  of  the  whole  crew  of  globe-trotters, 
personal  conductors  and  guide  books,  and  make 
straightway  for  some  little,  rural  hamlet  deeply 
secluded  from  all  the  signs  of  'Westernization.  As 
you  approach,  the  tilted  picturesque  roofs  of  the 
village  on  the  well  tilled  hillside,  look  from  a dis- 
tance like  a flock  of  gray  winged  birds  just  settling 
for  the  night. 

Here  with  the  smells  of  the  rice-fields  and  cherry 
blossoms  for  your  nostrils,  with  glancing  cascades 
and  bird  song  and  the  rattle  of  wooden  clogs  for 
your  music,  with  soft  hills,  wisteria  and  verdant 
valleys  for  your  eyes,  with  pearly  rice  grains  for 
your  diet,  with  the  smiling  humor  of  rural  faces 
for  your  ever-changing  amusement,  and — if  you  are 
wise — with  the  white  crown  of  Fuji  Yama  at  sunset 
for  your  reverence,  you  will  find  the  real  charm 
and  beauty  of  these  island  children,  and  Japan  will 
live  with  you  ever  afterward  like  the  memory  of  a 
summer  dream. 

If  one  really  believed  that  modernization,  as  we 
think  of  it  here  in  the  Occident,  with  all  its  strain- 
ing progress,  its  steam  plows  and  its  ten-room  flats, 
was  more  competent  in  making  people  happy  or 
useful,  we  would  easily  cease  to  pray  for  the  con- 
tented continuance  of  these  pastoral  conditions. 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


271 


But  when  we  place  these  Far  Eastern  people  with 
their  industry  and  cleanliness  of  life  and  motive, 
over  against  the  rural  conditions  of  our  own  popu- 
lation in  Maine  or  Pennsylvania,  or  compare  them 
with  our  outposts  of  village  life  on  the  Western  table 
lands,  composed  of  a few  stray  board  huts,  a church 
and  a dozen  saloons ; or  when  we  compare  the  pov- 
erty of  rural  Japan,  for  it  is  real  poverty,  with  the 
grinding,  despairful  country  struggles  for  bread  of 
many  an  English  or  Irish  Riding,  one  cannot  be 
blamed  if  he  hesitates  to  inflict  upon  these  sons  of 
Nippon,  our  entire  present  status  of  modernization. 

My  former  experiences  in  the  Orient  led  me  to 
spend  considerable  time  in  the  Japanese  inns,  both 
in  the  country  and  the  city,  for  if  one  can  put  up 
with  certain  inconveniences,  you  will  get  more  of 
the  real  country  in  this  way  than  by  many  trips  in 
the  modern  Westernized  centers.  It  is  first  neces- 
sary to  have  a letter  of  introduction,  since  Americans 
and  Europeans  are  not  welcome  guests  in  many 
native  inns.  The  proprietors  claim  that  Western- 
ers are  untidy  and  soil  the  tatami,  the  immaculate 
matting  with  which  the  floors  are  covered. 

Our  credentials  being  forthcoming  from  a Jap- 
anese friend,  we  first  sought  out  the  proprietor  of  a 
small  hotel  which  catered  chiefly  to  the  residents  of 
a certain  northern  Province  of  the  empire.  After 
considerable  searching,  we  found  our  hostelry  in  a 
tiny  crooked  street  that  seemed  to  wander  off  at 
random.  Its  roof  covered  entrance  gate  carried  a 
long  lantern,  swinging  in  the  breeze  and  upon  which 
were  written,  in  Chinese  ideographs,  the  name  of  the 
inn. 

Entering  a tiny  yard  we  came  to  what  takes  the 


272  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


place  of  the  entrance  hall  in  our  homes,  where  we 
were  met  by  the  maids  of  the  hotel  all  kneeling  on 
the  veranda  touching  their  heads  to  the  floor  and 
murmuring  “Welcome,  Welcome!”  in  musical  Jap- 
anese. We  presented  our  letter  to  the  proprietor 
and  after  a few  moments’  hesitation  he  asked  us  to 
remove  our  shoes  and  follow  the  maid.  She  took 
us  to  what  is  called  “an  eight  mat  room,”  which 
means  that  it  takes  eight  mats  to  cover  the  room. 
These  mats  are  three  feet  by  six,  consequently  this 
room  was  four  yards  square.  The  room  looked  bare 
enough  to  us  at  first  and  appeared  much  larger 
than  it  really  was,  because  of  the  absence  of  all 
furniture.  On  one  side  was  an  alcove  six  feet  long 
and  three  feet  deep  with  a polished  wooden  floor 
raised  about  six  inches.  On  this  floor  was  a vase 
with  some  branches  of  flowers  arranged  most 
artistically,  and  hanging  above  them  was  a kake- 
mono, picturing  the  jolly  god  of  Happiness,  in  soft 
tints  of  brown.  The  partitions  separating  us  from 
the  other  rooms  of  the  house  were  made  of  thick 
ornamental  paper  pasted  over  sliding  screens. 
Opening  upon  the  tiny  veranda  were  sliding  doors 
covered  with  thin  rice  paper  which  admitted  light 
but  which  were  not  transparent.  From  this  veranda 
we  looked  out  upon  a typical  Japanese  courtyard 
in  which  was  a miniature  pond,  surrounded  with 
rocks  of  various  shapes,  a diminutive  mountain  cov- 
ered with  dwarf  pines  and  maple  trees,  a stone 
lantern,  a torii  and  a large  bronze  Buddha. 

Our  luggage  was  placed  in  one  corner  and  we 
made  arrangements  in  regard  to  our  food.  It  took 
time  and  many  bowings  and  drawings  in  of  the 
breath  on  the  part  of  our  host,  who  tried  his  best 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


273 


to  understand  our  guide-book  Japanese.  When  this 
was  satisfactorily  arranged  they  all  touched  their 
heads  again  to  the  mat  and  left  us. 

Soon  our  little  maid  returned  with  a square  box 
filled  with  ashes  on  which  was  built  a charcoal  fire. 
On  this  fire  an  iron  kettle  is  kept  day  and  night  in 
order  that  hot  water  for  tea  making  will  be  always 
ready.  As  the  maid  prepared  the  tea,  pouring  it 
out  into  the  miniature  cups,  and  slid  it  across  the 
matting  to  us,  we  felt  very  big  and  awkward  and 
out  of  place.  For  some  reason  one’s  dignity  goes 
away  with  one ’s  shoes  and  we  looked  most  woefully 
tall  when  we  stood  up,  and  most  miserably  uncom- 
fortable when  we  tried  to  sit  on  the  matting.  When 
we  sat  on  our  feet,  they  pained  us  and  when  we 
stuck  them  straight  out  in  front  of  us,  they  took 
up  all  the  vacant  space  in  the  room. 

Then  there  are  the  wonderful  street  scenes  of  the 
real  Japan.  It  does  not  seem  to  matter  much 
whether  you  are  in  the  city  or  the  country,  wher- 
ever found,  the  Japanese  stores  are  the  shoppers’ 
paradise. 

There  is  also  in  some  districts  of  Tokyo  a Fair 
going  on  each  week,  and  upon  these  occasions,  the 
sidewalks  are  converted  into  shops;  tiny  stalls  are 
erected  along  the  curb,  decorated  with  lanterns  and 
flags,  and  everything  that  one  can  imagine  is  tempt- 
ingly offered  for  sale. 

It  seems  as  though  every  alternate  shop  and 
the  majority  of  the  Japanese  retailers  are  interested 
in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  toys  for  children. 
Japan  impressed  me  more  than  any  other  Eastern 
land,  save  possibly  Burma,  as  being  a children’s 
country.  The  most  self-contained  Japanese  counte- 


274  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


nance  breaks  into  a smile  at  the  approach  of  these 
tiny  sons  or  daughters  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom, 
who  often  resemble  nothing  so  much,  in  their  bright 
colored  kimonos,  as  animated  dolls. 

There  is,  indeed,  what  is  called  the  ‘‘Feast  of 
Dolls”  on  the  third  day  of  the  third  month,  and  in 
each  family,  the  doll  store  house  is  opened  on  this 
day  and  all  these  playthings,  big  and  little,  that 
have  been  accumulating  in  the  family  for  many  gen- 
erations, are  brought  out  with  great  care,  and  placed 
upon  red  covered  shelves  in  the  best  room  in  the 
house.  Here  they  rule  the  household  for  three  days. 

In  many  of  the  better  or  wealthier  homes  these 
dolls  are  very  wonderful  with  their  representatives 
of  the  Emperor  and  Empress  and  their  court,  all 
dressed  in  embroidered  silks  and  satins,  and  seated 
in  dignified  calm  upon  a lacquered  dais.  On  lower 
shelves  are  more  plebeian  dolls,  and  arranged  to  suit 
their  needs  are  the  furnishings  and  utensils  of  the 
toilet  ranging  from  those  made  of  silver  and  beau- 
tiful lacquer  for  the  use  of  Their  Majesties,  to  the 
common  tubs  and  ladles  for  the  maids  of  the  kitchen. 
In  the  poorer  homes  there  are  no  grand  court  ladies 
nor  lacquer  furniture,  nor  silver  toilet  articles,  but 
there  is  no  straw  thatched  roof  within  the  Empire 
but  on  the  Feast  of  Dolls  has  a few  poor  toys  to 
place  upon  the  shelves  to  make  this  day  the  great 
event  in  the  lives  of  the  Japanese  children.  There 
are  dolls  too  that  are  not  relegated  to  the  store- 
house, but  are  kept  close  to  their  little  mothers  night 
and  day,  and  these  are  the  ones  we  see  in  the  booths 
of  the  night  salesman,  who  shares  his  popularity 
with  the  man  who  has  the  puzzles  and  pictures  to  be 
cut  out  and  glued  together,  or  with  the  man  whose 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


275 


table  is  covered  with  the  little  mud  images  that 
children  use  in  their  sand  gardens.  There  are  tiny 
gateways,  straw  thatched  houses,  trees,  bridges, 
pagodas,  a snake,  a frog,  a god,  all  the  things  with 
which  the  babies  of  Japan  are  familiar. 

Walking  down  a native  street  it  would  seem  that 
all  Japan  must  occupy  itself  in  making,  selling,  or 
buying  toys  for  their  little  folk.  Once  when  in 
Japan,  I lived  at  the  foot  of  a mountain,  never 
dreaming  that  half  way  up  its  summit  was  a village 
of  workmen,  who  gave  all  their  time  to  fashioning 
the  bright  colored  wooden  toys  that  are  seen  in  the 
hands  of  virtually  every  Japanese  child.  We  wan- 
dered up  there  one  day  and  under  each  thatched 
roof  was  a little  army  of  workmen,  either  at  the 
turning-lathe  or  painting  queer  figures  in  bright 
reds  and  blues  upon  the  toys.  These  gaily  colored 
rattles  and  intricate  boxes  and  funny  looking  wooden 
dolls  looked  most  attractive,  but  I thought  that  if 
babies  in  Japan  were  like  babies  in  America  there 
would  be  many  wails  when  baby  licked  off  the  paint. 

Intermingled  with  the  toy  booths  we  found  great 
stands  of  goldfish,  birds  in  cages,  chirping  insects 
in  little  baskets,  pretty  ornaments  for  the  hair,  fans, 
sweets,  and  cakes  of  all  sorts  and  description.  Ja- 
pan never  seems  to  grow  tired  of  these  shopping 
fairs  and  if  the  night  is  clear,  the  streets  are  crowded 
with  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  and  sisters,  all  gaz- 
ing in  fascination  at  the  pretty  things  exposed  for 
sale. 

Every  night  during  fair  weeks,  itinerant  curio 
dealers  line  the  sidewalks  with  their  second-hand 
gods,  their  fifth-hand  pipes,  their  old  sword  shields, 
their  lacquer  trays,  embroidered  pocketbooks  and 


276  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tobacco  pouches,  old  pieces  of  blue  porcelain  and  all 
the  junk  they  have  accumulated  from  visits  to  the 
pawnshop  or  from  those  who  have  come  to  them 
with  their  treasures  in  time  of  need.  We  could  not 
withstand  the  gods  and  fell  a victim  to  a big  terra 
cotta  god  of  Happiness,  with  his  laughing  face,  a 
huge  full  stomach,  his  rice  bag  slung  over  his 
rounded  shoulder,  and  entered  into  an  amicable 
quarrel  with  the  owner  for  his  possession.  At  last 
he  was  mine,  and  it  did  not  mar  my  happiness  to 
find  that  he  weighed  fully  twenty  pounds  with  the 
problem  of  his  transportation  as  an  item.  He 
seemed  lonely  in  the  jinrikisha  and  I gave  him  for 
company  a god  of  Wisdom  made  from  a huge  piece 
of  bamboo,  because  the  great  round  forehead,  long 
beard  and  staff  of  knowledge  in  his  hand,  seemed 
just  the  ornaments  for  a study  table. 

It  is  a case  of  bargaining  to  buy  these  wares,  but 
it  is  very  good-natured  bargaining.  They  do  not 
frown  or  look  at  you  angrily  if  you  do  not  buy,  but 
bow  pleasantly  and  hope  you  will  come  again.  We 
are  told  that  the  Japanese  have  only  a surface  polite- 
ness, that  underneath  they  are  really  as  hard  as 
their  lacquer,  but  whatever  it  is,  sincere  or  not,  it 
makes  life  in  Japan  most  pleasant. 

We  return  to  our  inn  laden  with  picturesque 
spoil  to  be  met  at  the  entrance  by  a row  of  smiling, 
bowing  maids,  who  take  our  shoes  and  place  them  in 
a box  marked  with  our  names,  then  one  runs  ahead 
and  pushing  back  the  paper  shoji,  welcomes  us  to 
our  room.  She  returns  in  a moment  with  tea,  which 
is  drunk  at  all  times  of  day  and  night,  and  brings 
us  kimonos  belonging  to  the  house.  These  kimonos 
are  made  of  pale,  blue  cotton  crepe  and  are  always 


A woodland  scene  in  rural  Japan 


deaths  were  forbidden 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


277 


fresh  from  the  laundry.  In  fact  a Japanese  hotel 
is  scrupulously  clean.  It  makes  one  instinctively 
neat  and  careful  not  to  sully  the  spotless  matting, 
the  dainty  white  paper  windows,  and  the  polished 
woodwork  which  has  never  a spot  or  stain  upon  it. 
Things  are  not  laid  down  carelessly,  giving  an  ap- 
pearance of  disorder  to  a room,  as  all  clothing  is 
folded  and  placed  in  a cupboard  whose  decorated 
sliding  doors  cover  its  utilitarian  purpose. 

By  signs  we  made  it  understood  that  we  would 
like  to  go  to  sleep,  and  as  soon  as  our  complicated 
motions  and  the  one  word  we  knew  for  bed  had 
penetrated  to  the  intellect  of  our  maiden,  she  touched 
her  head  upon  the  floor  and  saying  “Hai,”  left  us, 
pattering  back  in  a moment  with  her  arms  full  of 
what  looked  like  the  old  fashioned  “ comfortables  ” 
my  grandmother  used  to  make.  These  were  put 
upon  the  floor,  a heavy  wadded  sleeping  quilt  laid 
over  them  for  coverlid.  An  addition  had  to  be 
made  to  the  bed  for  me  as  I am  somewhat  long,  and 
after  much  giggling  and  measuring,  it  was  decided 
that  folded  quilts  should  be  put  at  the  head  and 
the  foot  of  the  mattress  so  that  I need  not  hang 
over  at  each  end.  My  pillow  was  a small  bolster 
filled  with  bran,  while  my  wife  drew  a narrow  piece 
of  wood  with  a rounded  pin-cushion-looking  effect 
at  the  top,  on  which  she  was  supposed  to  rest  her 
neck  in  order  not  to  disarrange  her  hair.  The  pil- 
lows proved  most  uncomfortable,  but  we  improvised 
head  rests  from  the  silken  mats  used  for  cushions 
in  the  day  time.  This  bed  is  not  uncomfortable, 
as  the  matting  is  heavily  wadded  underneath,  and 
one  may  have  as  many  mattresses  as  he  wishes. 

You  may  travel  with  a limited  amount  of  luggage 


278  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


in  Japan,  as  the  hotels  furnish  such  necessities  as 
slippers,  brushes  and  a kimono  which  can  be  used 
as  sleeping  or  dressing  gown.  In  summer  this 
kimono  is  of  cotton  crepe,  and  often  has  the  name 
of  the  hotel  written  in  great  characters  across  the 
back.  At  a summer  resort  you  frequently  see  thirty 
or  forty  men  walking  on  the  seashore,  all  advertis- 
ing the  hostelries  where  they  stop.  In  the  winter 
the  hotel  kimono  is  an  immense  wadded  affair,  with 
a cotton  kimono  inside  to  preserve  its  cleanliness. 
This  loose,  easy-fitting  dress  is  extremely  comforta- 
ble, but  it  is  made  for  short  people  and,  when  ar- 
rayed in  one  of  them,  a tall  man  looks  decidedly 
like  a stork. 

After  the  bed  is  arranged,  a night-light  is  placed 
at  the  head,  together  with  a tobacco  box  containing 
a few  glowing  charcoals.  The  tea  service  is  placed 
within  easy  reach,  and  kneeling  to  the  floor  our  lit- 
tle maid  says  “0  Yasumai  Nasai!”  which  means, 
“Honorable  Ones,  Good  night!” 

In  the  morning  after  clapping  the  hands  to  call 
the  maid  and  hearing  the  answer  “Hai”  from  some 
distant  part  of  the  house,  we  are  greeted  by  the  salu- 
tation “Ohayo”  and  the  quaint  bowing  begins  all 
over  again.  We  are  conducted  to  the  washroom 
where,  being  a modern  hotel,  running  water  is  to  be 
found  and  a coolie  is  there  to  fill  the  brass  wash 
dishes  and  to  assist  the  guests  in  their  toilet.  A 
smaller  brass  basin,  polished  until  one’s  face  is  re- 
flected in  it,  is  placed  near  the  tiny  sealed  packet 
of  tooth  powder  and  the  tooth  brush  made  from 
soft  wood.  These  tooth  brushes,  to  be  used  only 
^nce  and  then  thrown  away,  are  being  superseded 
by  those  of  foreign  make,  as  are  so  many  of  the 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


279 


purely  native  articles  for  the  toilet  and  the  house- 
hold. 

The  Japanese  do  not  bathe  in  the  morning,  as  in 
most  hotels  the  bath  water  is  not  heated  until  noon. 
But  bathing  is  universal  in  Japan  and  it  is  a kind 
of  national  institution.  Practically  all,  rich  and 
poor,  princes  and  peasants,  have  a daily  bath. 
There  is  a saying  to  the  effect  that  “The  Japanese 
wash  their  bodies,  the  Chinese  their  clothes,  while 
the  Coreans  wash  neither.” 

The  bathroom  in  our  hotel  was  about  twelve  feet 
square.  In  one  corner  was  the  large  tub  filled  with 
water  heated  by  some  invisible  charcoal  stove.  It 
was  large  enough  to  hold  two  persons  and  the  water 
is  deep  enough  to  cover  a crouching  body.  It  is  an 
impractical  luxury  for  Western  women,  because  of 
the  Japanese  custom  of  mixed  bathing,  which  is  still 
in  vogue  in  the  country  and  in  fact  in  most  city  inns 
which  natives  frequent.  All  of  the  guests  of  the 
hotel  go  to  the  bath  together  or  singly,  whenever 
they  have  the  leisure  to  indulge  in  this  most  enjoy- 
able means  of  relaxation.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Okura  may 
be  there,  the  door  will  open  and  Mr.  Osliima  will 
enter  and  perhaps  soon  Miss  Fijiyoma  and  Mrs. 
Tuckori  will  come  for  their  daily  ablution.  They 
have  all  left  their  clothing  in  the  dressing  room  and 
they  salute  each  other  respectfully  and  proceed  with 
their  bathing.  The  attendant  brings  the  hot  water 
in  little  wooden  tubs,  gives  each  bather  a vegetable 
sponge  and  will  assist  him  or  her  to  bathe  the  back 
or  pour  water  over  the  body  in  order  that  it  may  be 
thoroughly  cleansed  of  soap  before  entering  the  tub. 
It  would  not  be  polite  for  Mr.  Okura  to  enter  the 
tub  if  a lady  was  seated  in  it,  but  if  she  knew  the 


280  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


ordinary  rules  of  politeness,  she  would  not  linger 
longer  than  five  minutes  in  its  warm  embrace.  After 
a turn  in  the  hot  water  each  guest  again  is  washed 
carefully  and  again  sits  in  the  water,  which  is  ex- 
tremely hot,  for  a few  minutes,  and  then  is  cooled 
off  by  having  the  attendant  pour  cooler  water  over 
him.  There  are  no  towels,  each  person  bringing  his 
own  small  cloth  which  is  used  for  both  towel  and 
wash  cloth.  After  the  bather  feels  that  he  is  thor- 
oughly clean  he  politely  bids  the  other  guests  good- 
day  and  leaves  the  room  to  don  his  kimono.  It  is 
all  accomplished  most  naturally  with  no  thought  of 
immodesty  on  the  part  of  either  men  or  women. 
The  same  lady  who  would  join  the  guests  of  the 
hotel  in  the  bathroom  in  a state  of  complete  nudity, 
would  be  very  much  shocked  if  one  of  the  guests 
saw  her  dressed  without  her  obi,  the  great  sash 
which  disguises  the  lines  of  her  figure  from  the 
hack. 

Japan  is  trying  to  abandon  some  of  those  customs 
that  have  caused  her  to  be  criticized  by  visitors 
from  lands  who  have  a different  standard  of  mod- 
esty. In  one  of  the  inland  cities  a law  was  passed 
that  a division  should  be  made  between  the  men  and 
women’s  quarters  in  the  public  baths.  The  Japa- 
nese, most  obediently,  stretched  a rope  partition. 
In  another  town  when  this  same  order  was  given,  a 
three  quarter  partition  was  erected  to  comply  with 
the  law,  but  in  the  large  room  outside  the  men  and 
women  congregated  around  their  baskets  of  cloth- 
ing, smoked  little  pipes,  drank  cups  of  tea,  and 
fanned  themselves  to  get  the  proper  degree  of  cool- 
ness before  dressing  and  exposing  themselves  to 
the  frosty  air  of  the  northern  country.  I was  at  one 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


281 


time  at  a famous  seaside  resort  where  men,  women 
and  children  came  from  all  parts  of  Japan  to  indulge 
in  sea  bathing.  An  order  came  that  all  bathers 
should  wear  at  least  one  article  of  clothing.  They 
were  perfectly  willing  to  comply  with  the  law — 
they  wrapped  a towel  around  their  heads. 

The  lack  of  modesty,  from  a Westerner’s  point  of 
view,  often  leads  to  most  embarrassing  complica- 
tions. On  one  of  our  many  peregrinations  around 
one  city,  we  made  the  acquaintance  of  a famous 
English  traveler,  a most  dignified  man,  who  had 
been  honored  by  many  countries  and  could  write  a 
various  assortment  of  letters  after  his  name.  He 
was  interested  in  our  life  in  the  Japanese  hotel,  and 
we  asked  him  to  dinner  a la  Japonaise.  He  came 
very  early  and  as  it  was  rather  hard  to  entertain  him, 
the  luxury  of  the  Japanese  bath  was  offered  as  a 
means  of  amusement.  He  was  delighted  and  I con- 
ducted him  to  the  bathroom  which  happened  to  be 
empty.  He  was  enjoying  the  rubbing  and  massag- 
ing of  the  attendant  when  the  door  opened  and  two 
Japanese  ladies  entered.  They  bowed  to  him  politely 
but  he  became  panic  stricken  and  looked  around 
madly  for  a place  in  which  to  hide  his  six  feet  two 
of  body.  The  nearest  place  was  the  big  tub  filled 
with  hot  water  into  which  he  plunged  not  realizing 
its  heat,  which  made  him  gasp.  He  did  not  dare  to 
leave  the  tub  although  he  felt  he  was  slowly  being 
cooked,  but  the  ladies  only  looked  at  him  wonder- 
ingly  when  he  made  gestures  indicative  of  his  desire 
that  they  should  leave  the  room  before  he  expired. 
At  last  he  fainted.  The  water  was  too  hot  for  one 
not  used  to  the  Japanese  bath,  and  the  world  nearly 
lost  a famous  traveler,  who  decided  after  he  had 


282  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


been  revived,  that  he  would  stick  to  beaten  tracks, 
and  not  experiment  in  native  ways  unknown  to  him. 

Breakfast  in  a Japanese  inn  could  not  be  distin- 
guished from  dinner  except  that  more  courses  are 
served  at  the  latter  meal,  which  is  the  principal  meal 
of  the  day  for  the  Japanese.  Rice  is  the  main  arti- 
cle of  food  and  fish  is  used  almost  exclusively.  It 
is  said  that  there  are  six  hundred  kinds  of  fish  in 
the  waters  around  Japan,  and  it  is  served  in  many 
ways.  The  food  to  foreign  taste  is  rather  insipid 
and  must  be  dipped  into  a dish  of  brown  sauce  that 
acts  as  salt  and  flavoring.  Beef  and  pork  and  fowl 
are  eaten  but  their  consumption  is  insignificant  com- 
pared with  the  part  fish  and  vegetables  play  in  a 
Japanese  menu. 

Dinner  is  served  in  a most  dainty  manner.  Each 
guest  is  brought  a small  tray  with  tiny  legs  about 
three  inches  high  and  on  this  tray  for  an  ordinary 
meal  would  be  a bowl  for  the  rice,  a covered  wooden 
bowl  containing  soup  made  of  fish  and  vegetables, 
a small  dish  of  pickled  turnips  or  cabbage  sliced 
very  fine,  a dish  of  fish  or  prawns  or  eels,  or  what- 
ever happens  to  be  the  piece  de  resistance  of  the 
day.  Raw  fish  is  eaten  and  it  is  not  so  shocking 
as  it  sounds  when  it  has  been  well  soaked  in  the 
sauce  to  give  it  flavor.  There  are  no  desserts  with 
a Japanese  meal.  Fruits  and  cakes  are  eaten  at  all 
times.  They  have  an  enormous  variety  of  sweet- 
meats and  confectionary.  One  of  the  reasons  for 
the  enormous  number  of  sweet  and  cake  shops  that 
flourish  to  such  a great  extent  in  Japan,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  the  Japanese  are  always  send- 
ing presents  of  cakes  to  one  another,  at  births, 
deaths,  birthdays,  and  at  any  event  of  importance 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


283 


that  occurs  in  the  family.  The  second  reason  for 
the  variety  of  confectionary  shops  lies  in  the  cus- 
tom of  setting  cakes  before  a visitor  when  tea  is 
served.  The  tea  is  drunk,  hut  frequently  the  cakes 
are  left  untouched,  when  the  host,  if  loyal  to  the 
customs  of  Old  Japan,  wraps  the  cakes  in  paper 
and  gives  them  to  the  guest. 

Such  a great  quantity  of  cakes  are  sent  to  friends 
at  New  Years  and  on  occasions  of  special  festivi- 
ties, that  the  receiver  often  sends  the  gifts  to  another 
friend,  who  in  turn  passes  them  on  to  another,  often 
their  journey  ending  at  the  home  of  the  original 
donor.  This  custom  being  well  known  in  Tokyo, 
many  of  the  best  confectioners  now  put  on  the  box 
of  cake  the  date  of  sale  that  their  reputation  may 
not  suffer  if,  at  the  end  of  its  travels,  the  cake  is  in 
bad  condition.  Children  are  a great  asset  to  the 
merchants  of  Japan,  as  no  one  thinks  of  making  a 
call  at  a house  where  there  are  children  without  tak- 
ing either  sweets  or  toys.  The  sale  of  candies  is  not 
confined  to  shops,  for  one  sees  in  all  the  side  streets 
little  barrows  around  which  the  children  cluster, 
watching  the  man  make  with  quick,  nimble  fingers, 
dolls  and  horses  and  tiny  gods  from  the  colored 
sugar.  These  cakes  and  tidbits  so  loved  by  the  Jap- 
anese babies,  are  not  very  palatable  to  foreign  taste 
as  they  are  very  insipid,  neither  sweet  nor  sour. 
In  fact  all  food  seems  to  lack  something,  seems  to 
just  miss  the  right  flavoring,  as  if  the  cook  had  for- 
gotten the  salt  or  mislaid  the  red  pepper. 

There  are  gardens  filled  with  azaleas  and  wisteria 
and  cherry  trees  which  so  delight  the  eyes  of  the 
beauty-loving  Japanese  in  their  springtime,  and 
groves  of  maple  trees  whose  leaves  turn  a deep,  dark 


284  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


crimson  in  tlie  fall.  In  a few  minutes  from  your 
rural  inn,  one  can  wander  over  tiny  bridges,  past 
great  stone  lanterns,  look  into  the  depths  of  a grotto 
into  which  falls  a miniature  waterfall,  then,  by  wind- 
ing paths  climb  the  little  hillocks  past  a torii,  to  a 
tea  house  where  one  may  sit  on  the  mat  and  drink 
his  tea  and  watch  the  happy  people  on  their  holiday. 
There  are  women  in  gray  silken  kimonos  with  obis 
of  mauve  and  gold,  chatting  with  their  mothers  who 
are  modestly  dressed  in  black.  The  young  girls 
pass,  clothed  in  reds  and  yellows,  leading  tiny  chil- 
dren that  rival  the  birds  in  the  colors  of  their 
plumage.  They  look  like  butterflies  with  their  long- 
sleeved  bright  colored  kimonos,  their  black  hair  cut 
straight  across  the  neck,  their  pretty  sashes  and 
their  faces  alight  with  laughter  as  they  skip  along 
in  their  lacquered  clogs. 

When  we  tire  of  gardens  and  scenery,  we  go  to 
the  Japanese  theater  to  see  some  famous  actor.  We 
leave  our  shoes  outside  in  charge  of  the  doorman, 
and  go  into  a great  room  filled  with  people  who  have 
been  there  since  five  o’clock  in  the  afternoon  and 
who  will,  quite  likely,  sit  patiently  until  ten-thirty 
when  the  play  will  be  finished.  We  sit  in  the  en- 
closed square  on  the  floor  and  watch  the  actors  upon 
the  stage  who  enter  from  the  back  of  the  audience 
hall  upon  a raised  wooden  walk  which  is  on  a level 
with  our  heads.  In  many  of  the  theaters  there  is  a 
revolving  stage.  A scene  is  set  upon  the  front  half 
of  a turntable,  and  while  that  scene  is  being  acted, 
the  carpenters  are  putting  up  the  next  scene  in  the 
rear  half.  When  the  first  act  is  over,  the  table  re- 
volves and  brings  the  second  to  view,  allowing  the 
play  to  be  continued  without  interruption. 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


285 


Another  peculiarity  is  the  presence  on  the  stage 
of  black  dressed  men  who  are  supposed  to  be  invisi- 
ble. They  prompt  the  actors,  remove  from  the  stage 
any  articles  that  cease  to  be  of  use,  push  a cushion 
to  an  actor  when  he  is  about  to  sit  down,  and  re- 
move the  dead.  There  is  no  orchestra,  but  on  either 
side  of  the  stage  in  a kind  of  balcony  is  the  chorus, 
which,  as  in  the  old  Greek  theater,  makes  a kind  of 
running  accompaniment,  instrumental  and  vocal,  to 
the  play  being  enacted,  serving  to  point  the  moral 
and  to  adorn  the  tale.  In  the  old  classical  dramas, 
which  are  still  the  most  popular,  all  the  parts  are 
taken  by  men,  and  a matinee  hero  in  America  is 
never  more  of  a demagogue  than  are  the  great  actors 
of  Japan.  We  never  hear,  in  Japan  of  a scion  of  a 
noble  house  eloping  with  the  lady  of  the  chorus,  but 
we  often  hear  of  a Japanese  lady  sighing  out  her 
heart  for  a popular  actor. 

Between  acts  the  actor  has  several  curtains  bear- 
ing his  name  and  crest  drawn  across  the  stage  show- 
ing the  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  by  the  friends 
who  gave  him  the  curtains.  I have  seen  as  many  as 
a dozen  of  these,  beautifully  embroidered,  expensive, 
advertising  mediums  slowly  shown  to  the  admiring 
audience.  In  the  lobbies  the  photographs  of  the 
famous  one  are  sold,  and  here  young  girls  shyly  ad- 
mire their  favorite  hero,  photographed  either  in 
his  ordinary  dress,  or  picturesquely  garbed  in  the 
costume  of  some  part  in  which  he  had  made  a suc- 
cess. One  can  also  buy  in  gold,  silver  or  lacquer, 
tiny  pins  carrying  the  actor’s  picture  or  his  crest. 

At  the  Imperial  theater  in  Tokyo  one  sees  nothing 
but  modern  Japan,  and  on  the  stage,  women 
actresses  have  their  place  and  play  important  parts. 


286  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  playhouse  is  almost  exactly  what  one  might  ex- 
pect to  see  in  any  great  city  of  Europe.  The  roomy, 
comfortable  seats  are  covered  with  satin,  and  there 
are  boxes,  stalls,  first  and  second  balconies  and  a 
gallery.  The  plays  given  are  generally  three  in 
number,  the  first  a Japanese  play  of  the  olden  time, 
the  second  a modern  farce  where  the  actors  are 
dressed  in  European  clothing,  and  the  last  is  often 
a spectacular  drama.  The  staging  is  most  exqui- 
site, done  almost  as  well  as  a Belasco  or  a Beer- 
bohm  Tree  would  do  it.  The  dresses  of  the  actors 
are  magnificent  gold  and  brocades,  with  their  gor- 
geous colorings  beautifully  blended  by  the  hands  of 
an  artist. 

There  is  a restaurant  in  the  theater  where  din- 
ner may  be  obtained,  and  where  afternoon  tea  is 
served.  In  this  twentieth  century  playhouse  one 
sees  new  Japan  taking  tea  with  milk  and  sugar 
instead  of  drinking  clear  tea,  as  I am  sure  he  does 
at  home,  and  eats  the  European  food  sitting  at  a 
table  as  if  he  had  been  accustomed  to  it  all  his  life. 
In  fact  judging  by  the  foreign  restaurants  that  are 
springing  up  everywhere  in  Tokyo,  the  Japanese  are 
beginning  to  care  for  the  food  of  other  lands.  A 
teacher  in  a girl’s  school  told  me  that  she  found  it 
necessary  to  add  the  cooking  of  foreign  food  to  her 
curriculum  in  the  domestic  science  department.  She 
added  that  many  married  women  applied  for  this 
course  in  order  to  entertain  the  progressive  friends 
of  their  husbands,  who  preferred  the  European 
dishes  to  those  of  the  Japanese. 

A great  many  entertainments  are  given  now  in 
the  city  in  European  restaurants  because  it  is  much 
cheaper  than  dining  friends  at  a tea  house  or  at 


IN  THE  EEAL  JAPAN 


287 


liome,  because  of  the  Japanese  custom  of  sending 
the  remaining  food  to  the  homes  of  the  guest.  Even 
when  Japanese  have  grown  away  from  the  cus- 
toms of  their  fathers  in  so  far  as  not  to  give  the 
food,  it  is  hard  for  them  to  leave  old  traditions  so  far 
behind  them  that  the  guests  on  returning  home  will 
not  find  enclosed  within  a fancy  box  a beautifully 
decorated  fish,  a cake,  or  some  such  practical 
memento  of  the  evening’s  entertainment. 

It  is  all  a strange  world,  and  in  a sense  an  in- 
tricate one,  this  rural,  real  Japan  which  one  finds 
beneath  the  sun  and  the  rain,  among  the  country 
folk  of  the  island  Empire.  Indeed,  you  cannot  help 
feeling  how  truly  these  people’s  characteristics  fit 
the  natural  scenery  of  picturesque,  verdant  hill,  of 
flowering  valley  and  the  ever-present  sea. 

There  are  some  things,  however,  of  which  we  be- 
come more  or  less  sure;  among  these  are  the  sim- 
plicity of  life,  contentment,  neatness,  comfort  and 
order,  which  one  finds  as  common  in  the  city  as  in 
the  country.  In  the  smallest,  obscure,  thatched  cot- 
tage, the  artistic  connoisseur  sits  cross-legged  and 
content,  producing  handiwork  that  will  adorn  the 
palaces  of  kings,  satisfied  and  happy  with  his  mod- 
est rice  howl  and  his  raw  fish.  For  three  yen,  or 
$1.50  a day  for  tivo,  we  live  here  in  this  Japanese 
inn,  losing  the  terror  of  the  American  or  European 
hotel  bill  which  casts  its  dubious  shadow  across  so 
many  pleasures.  For  a single  yen,  a Japanese  or 
even  an  American  can  enjoy  a wonderful  holiday, 
and  eat  of  the  fat  of  the  land.  A Japanese  coolie 
who  could  receive  $1.50  a day  in  Tokyo,  a modest 
wage  for  our  Western  workingman,  could  live  here 
like  a king. 


288  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


In  a certain  Shinto  shrine  in  Japan,  I saw  one 
day  a plain  mirror,  which  according  to  these  peo- 
ple’s ideas,  represents  the  human  heart  which  when 
perfectly  placid  and  clear  reflects  the  very  image  of 
deity.  The  real  Japanese  whom  we  find  outside  of 
the  tides  and  change  of  the  big  cities,  like  the  rural 
Easterner  everywhere,  is  perhaps  more  nearly  sat- 
isfied and  contented  than  any  other  national  person- 
age with  whom  I am  familiar.  As  one  of  the 
Eastern  proverbs  goes;  they,  “wet  their  sleeves 
with  the  tears  of  glad  content.”  It  is  a smiling  race 
that  greets  you  in  the  moist  lanes  of  their  trim  vil- 
lages and  in  the  even  rice  furrows  of  their  pros- 
perous looking  fields,  a race  taught  from  childhood 
to  smile  regardless  of  whether  they  feel  like  doing 
it  or  not.  Their  joys  are  simple  joys,  and  their 
prayers  are  simple  prayers. 

Industry  and  the  sound  of  the  soroban,  their 
counting  machine,  are  everywhere  present.  Filial 
devotion  is  almost  as  much  a religion  as  it  is  in 
China,  from  which  country  its  influence  came  to 
these  islands. 

But  with  all  their  simplicity,  one  feels,  even  in 
the  remote  sections  of  the  Empire,  that  he  is  dealing 
with  a gifted  and  resolute  people,  who  have  never 
“undone  their  helmet  strings.”  Their  loyalty  to 
the  Emperor  and  things  Japanese  is  as  beautiful  as 
it  is  thought-provoking.  It  is  like  our  devotion  to 
the  Stars  and  Stripes,  but  in  a way  more  intangibly 
sentimental.  The  Divine  Right  of  Kings,  new  con- 
stitutionalism, the  Imperial  diet,  the  ever-present 
tendency  to  bureaucracy  and  the  sword  which  was 
the  soul  of  the  Samurai,  are  all  mingled  inextri- 
cably in  the  race  nationality  of  every  son  of  the  soil. 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


289 


This  national  life,  so  truly  one  of  inveterate  toil, 
and  of  innocent  joys,  is  also  one  of  irresistible  pride 
and  patriotism;  it  is  on  occasion  “built  of  tears  and 
sacred  flames.”  The  Japanese  can  be  as  terrible 
when  aroused  as  they  are  attractive  in  peace.  The 
tale  of  the  Forty-seven  Ronins,  with  its  hara-kiri, 
tragic  accompaniments,  has  been  listened  to  with 
rapt  attention  since  early  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  it  is  still  the  most  popular  story  told  to  Japa- 
nese children.  It  is  significant  that  the  graves  of 
Japan’s  martial  heroes  are  always  thick  with  flow- 
ers. 

Japan  has  never  known  the  yoke  of  a conqueror. 
This  may  account  in  part  for  her  self-confident  pro- 
gressiveness. Yet  she  has  the  patience  of  the  East, 
and  she  is  acquiring  the  discipline  of  the  West.  It 
is  also  to  be  noted  that  she  is  not  adopting,  but 
adapting  her  modernization. 

Her  government  is  not  yet  settled,  but  her  na- 
tional and  racial  loyalties,  the  forces  out  of  which 
modern  states  draw  their  impulse  and  power,  have 
always  been  found  adequate  for  emergencies.  She 
is  still  worshiping  personalities  rather  than  princi- 
ples. She  is  learning  slowly  the  way  out  of  her 
hereditary,  commercial  dishonesties,  and  is  gradu- 
ally discovering  that  her  ethical  code,  which  has  al- 
ways been  that  of  a soldier,  partaking  of  his  virtues 
as  well  as  of  his  vices,  must  be  exchanged  or  mod- 
ified by  the  ethical  code  of  honest  business  method, 
man  to  man.  A nation  whose  laws  for  generations 
were  “silent  amid  arms,”  accounting  that  loyalty 
excused  a multitude  of  sins,  does  not  come,  all  at 
once,  into  the  atmosphere  of  modern  commercial 
methods  and  principles.  Japan  is  also  struggling 


290  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


under  an  enormous  burden  of  debt,  though  rarely 
do  you  hear  complaints  regarding  a weight  of  tax- 
ation that  would  stir  a Western  nation  to  anarchy. 
Like  China,  she  has  been  a nation  of  small  shop- 
keepers, but  now  the  air  of  her  cities  is  becoming 
black  with  the  coal  smoke  of  a new  industrial  day. 

The  end  of  the  great  Japanese  task  of  moderni- 
zation and  renewal  is  not  yet  in  sight.  All  the  fierce 
struggles  of  labor  and  capital,  the  problems  of 
child  labor,  monopoly,  sexual  ethics,  and  the  shifty 
officialdom  of  the  nations  of  the  West,  are  waiting 
in  advance  of  her  present  regeneration.  Her  edu- 
cation and  her  ethics  are  still  in  the  half-light  of  the 
older  Asiatic  day.  She  has  not  yet  exchanged  her 
worship  of  the  wonderful  and  the  beautiful  for  the 
veneration  of  the  God  of  Righteousness  and  per- 
sonal soul  satisfactions. 

But  I,  for  one,  am  confident,  that  as  Japan  took 
her  early  civilization  from  China  and  made  it  Jap- 
anese, she  will  also  find  the  way  of  taking  moderni- 
zation from  the  West,  and  without  destroying  her 
own  individualism,  weave  it  into  the  stronger 
strands  of  her  expanding  present  and  her  mighty 
future. 

But  these  complexities  and  problems  are  not  for 
the  scenes  and  the  thoughts  of  the  sturdy  peasants, 
and  the  rosy  women  who,  as  I write  these  words 
from  a Japanese  hilltop,  are  trudging  homeward 
singing  and  laughing  away  their  weariness  like  real 
children  of  nature,  which  they  are. 

And  now,  as  the  sun  on  Fuji  brightens  and  glows 
with  the  parting  day,  the  winding  streets  of  the  lit- 
tle town  begin  to  darken.  We  climb  into  our  rick- 


IN  THE  REAL  JAPAN 


291 


shaws,  and  with  no  sound  save  the  patter  of  the 
kurama’s  feet,  swing  down  the  tiny  passageways, 
passing  the  rows  of  silent  gateways  where  only  a 
lighted  lantern,  and  the  sound  within  of  merry 
voices,  tells  that  life  with  all  it  has  of  weal  and 
woe,  lives  behind  the  enclosing  wall,  until  we  are 
halted  before  our  temporary  home,  the  inn  of  a 
rural  village.  We  are  met  at  the  entrance  by  the 
little  maids  who  never  seem  to  sleep,  and  who  al- 
ways greet  us  with  a smile,  no  matter  how  late  we 
return.  Our  room  with  its  softly  shaded  light,  the 
mattresses  lying  side  by  side  upon  the  floor,  the 
neatly  folded  kimonos,  the  smell  of  the  tea  on  the 
cozy  brazier;  it  is  all  free  and  innocent  and  whole- 
some as  the  round  fair  faces  of  the  Nasans,  speak- 
ing to  us  of  peace  and  quiet  rest.  The  little  garden 
with  its  pine  tree,  its  torii,  its  great  stone  lantern 
and  its  figure  of  the  calm  Buddha,  dimly  outlined  in 
the  moonlight,  seem  to  say  with  the  little  maid: 
“0  Yasumai  Nasai!”  “Honorable  Ones,  Sleep 
well!” 


XX 


The  Spirit  of  Education  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom 

THIRTY  years  ago  a Japanese  student  apply- 
ing for  admission  at  the  Imperial  Univer- 
sity at  Tokyo  selected  as  his  major  study  a course 
in  economics,  and  as  his  minor  study,  English  lit- 
erature. The  Dean  of  the  department  of  literature 
questioned  him  as  to  his  motive  for  combining  these 
two  somewhat  unrelated  branches  of  learning.  The 
student  replied,  “I  wish,  sir,  to  be  a bridge  across 
the  Pacific.” 

This  same  student  grown  to  manhood  and  occu- 
pying the  Presidency  of  the  first  National  College  in 
Tokyo,  as  well  as  a professorship  in  the  Imperial 
University,  has  recently  returned  to  Japan  after 
spending  a year  in  America,  lecturing  at  six  Amer- 
ican Universities  under  the  auspices  of  the  Carnegie 
Peace  Endowment,  contributing  in  no  small  way  to 
his  boyhood  dream  of  interpreting  the  East  to  the 
West,  and  being  as  he  expressed  it,  a “convoy  of 
warm  human  feeling”  between  the  lands  of  the  ris- 
ing and  setting  sun. 

No  one  could  be  long  resident  in  present  day 
Japan,  especially  during  the  discussions  interna- 
tional that  are  now  rife,  relative  to  the  status  of 
Japanese  in  America,  without  appreciating  the 
value  and  the  necessity  of  such  broad  minded  and 

sympathetic  educated  ambassadorship.  In  speak- 

292 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  EDUCATION 


293 


ing  with  the  men  of  education  who  have  been 
trained  in  America  or  Europe,  I have  continually 
heard  the  remark,  “We  of  course  understand  this 
California  matter,  for  we  have  learned  to  know 
Americans  and  have  become  acquainted  with  Amer- 
ican ideals  of  government  and  society,  but  the  peo- 
ple of  Japan,  these  are  the  factors  of  alarm.  The 
people  do  not  know  and  cannot  comprehend  the 
spirit  of  American  institutions.” 

If  this  is  true  on  this  side  of  the  Pacific,  I believe 
it  is  more  or  less  true  in  America  that  sympathy  is 
limited  by  comprehension.  Even  as  tourists,  we 
are  usually  so  engrossed  with  the  strangeness  and 
the  scenic  beauty  of  this  wonderful  picture-land 
that  we  find  ourselves  facing  homeward  without 
having  grasped  in  any  real  way  the  nature  and  the 
spirit  actuating  fifty-two  millions  of  Oriental  peo- 
ples, who  during  the  past  half  century  have  ex- 
hibited before  the  eyes  of  the  world  the  most  in- 
credible spectacle  of  transitional  progress  ever  wit- 
nessed in  the  rise  of  nations.  Although  the  present 
spirit,  controlling  the  impulses  and  actions  of  Japan, 
defies  accurate  analysis  even  by  the  Japanese  them- 
selves, it  is  doubtless  true  that  one  comes  nearer  to 
discovering  it  through  the  medium  of  Japan’s  edu- 
cated sons  than  in  any  other  way,  and  I have  chosen 
these  men  of  education  as  a glass  through  which  to 
look  in  order  to  see  reflected  the  life  and  thought  of 
the  Japan  of  to-day. 

The  thinking  men  of  Japan  have  passed  through 
a three-fold  evolution  in  their  school  life  during  the 
last  forty  years  of  educational  modernization. 

A teacher  who  has  been  training  Japanese  youth 
for  twenty-five  years  has  described  the  change  as 


294  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


something  revolutionary,  as  contrasted  with  the 
time  when  he  first  faced  a class  of  undergraduates, 
“a  motley  crowd  of  young  ruffians,  unkempt,  un- 
shaven, with  bare  legs  and  short  gowns,”  reading 
in  loud  and  harsh  voices  a part  of  Guizot’s  “His- 
tory of  Civilization,”  tearing  without  ceremony 
their  note  paper  from  the  paper  doors  which  gave 
light  to  the  room,  and  expressing  the  vulgar  curi- 
osity of  common  street  boys  with  their  questions 
regarding  the  foreigner’s  age,  clothes,  birthplace, 
and  personal  habits.  Although  it  is  true  that  the 
Japanese  are  said  to  have  inaugurated  an  early 
system  of  education  in  the  eighth  century,  ante- 
dating the  founding  of  Oxford  by  two  hundred 
years,  these  early  educational  foundations  of  the 
Nara  period  were  often  entirely  lost  sight  of  in 
their  checkered  career,  existing  at  times  only  in  the 
monasteries  of  Japan’s  late  medievalism.  The 
contrast  between  this  rude  condition  of  education  of 
a quarter  of  a century  ago  and  that  of  the  present 
is  striking;  even  more  striking  than  to  try  to  im- 
agine what  it  would  mean  for  the  students  of  El 
Azhar,  for  example,  the  great  Mohammedan  Uni- 
versity of  Cairo,  12,000  strong,  now  bending  super- 
stitiously  over  the  Koran  and  its  interpretations 
through  twelve  precious  years,  to  suddenly  depart 
from  the  method  and  the  material  of  thirteenth  cen- 
tury education  and  in  a few  short  years  to  take  on 
both  the  form  and  the  reality  of  virtually  every 
branch  of  modern  learning! 

At  the  restoration  of  Peace  under  the  Tokogawas, 
education  came  to  the  front  with  the  patronage  of 
the  old  Daimyos.  It  consisted  of  Chinese  litera- 
ture and  history,  its  aim  was  cultural  and  literary, 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  EDUCATION 


295 


its  method  was  memorizing  and  by  “disputations,” 
being  confined  largely  to  the  higher  classes,  its  ob- 
ject to  train  men  to  the  service  of  the  State.  The 
old  Samurai  became  teachers  and  opened  schools, 
proving  in  many  cases  that  the  pen  in  their  hands 
was  mightier  than  the  sword.  A prominent  Japa- 
nese professor  has  given  the  following  account  of 
his  attendance  at  one  of  these  early  educational  cen- 
ters : 

It  consisted  of  a couple  of  rooms  where  some  twenty  or 
thirty  boys  (and  a very  few  girls)  ranging  in  age  from 
seven  to  fourteen,  spent  the  forenoon,  each  reading  in  turn 
with  the  teacher  for  half  an  hour,  some  paragraphs  from 
Confucius  and  Mencius,  and  devoting  the  rest  of  the  time 
to  caligraphy.  Of  the  three  R’s  ’Riting  demanded  most 
time  and  reading  but  little,  ’Rithmetic  scarcely  any,  except 
in  a school  attended  by  children  of  the  common  people  as 
distinct  from  those  of  the  Samurai.  Sons  of  the  Samurai 
began  fencing,  jiu  jitsu,  and  spear  lessons  in  the  early  morn- 
ing. As  a child  of  seven,  I remember  being  roused  by  my 
mother  before  dawn  in  the  winter,  and  reluctantly,  often 
in  positively  bad  humor,  picking  my  way  barefooted 
through  the  snow.  The  idea  was  to  accustom  children  to 
hardihood  and  endurance.  There  was  little  fun  in  the 
school-room,  except  as  our  ingenious  minds  devised  it  be- 
hind our  teacher’s  hack.  With  Puritanic  austerity  we  were 
treated — not  like  children  but  like  men.  How  could  they 
be  expected  to  grasp  the  Confucian  category  of  virtues? 
They  just  read  and  recited  by  rote — with  less  comprehen- 
sion than  boys  and  girls  who  learn  Biblical  texts  in  Amer- 
ica. We  grew  up  with  no  idea  of  physical  or  natural  sci- 
ence, no  idea  of  mathematics  except  the  first  few  rules,  no 
idea  of  Geography.  If  I were  to  go  on  enumerating  what 
nowadays  in  elementary  schools  we  did  not  learn,  I would 
have  to  give  the  entire  list. 


296  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  second  stage  of  modern  Japanese  education 
came  with  the  introduction  of  Western  science  in 
which  the  “Dutch  students”  as  the  young  Japanese 
were  called,  labored  at  the  peril  of  their  lives  to  ob- 
tain the  language  of  the  traders  from  Holland  that 
they  might,  through  these  Dutch  books,  discover  the 
wonderful  secrets  of  Western  civilization.  These 
students,  who  at  that  time  were  thought  of  as  Revo- 
lutionists, united  with  the  Imperialists  to  inaugu- 
rate the  great  educational  revolution  which  has 
brought  about  the  new  system  of  Japanese  learn- 
ing. As  Count  Okuma  said  to  me  in  regard  to  this 
period,  “It  is  usually  true  that  in  revolutions  men 
go  to  extremes.”  This  was  chauvinism  truly  of 
the  young  Japanese  who  looked  upon  everything  at 
home  as  barbarian  during  these  days,  and  every- 
thing Western  as  civilized  and  to  be  absorbed  un- 
thinkingly at  whatever  price.  The  teachers  from 
the  West  were  continually  bored  by  questions  about 
their  “civilization.”  Everything  Western  was  imi- 
tated. The  fever  was  severe. 

To  counteract  this  tendency,  wiser  minds  began 
to  emphasize  the  spirit  of  Old  Japan  and  to  suggest 
that  “Bushido”  should  be  revived  and  expanded  to 
become  the  dominant  principle  of  the  Nation’s 
morals.  It  is  out  of  this  combination  of  extreme 
radicalism  and  the  ancient  Bushido  that  there  has 
been  evolved  the  third  phase  of  Japanese  education, 
the  phase  in  which  German  and  American  models 
have  been  adapted  to  Japanese  life  and  require- 
ments and  a distinctly  Japanese  brand  of  training 
evolved.  This  is  so  truly  the  case  that  at  present, 
I am  told,  it  is  very  difficult  for  other  than  home 
trained  students,  at  least  as  far  as  the  body  of 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  EDUCATION 


297 


training  is  concerned,  to  readily  obtain  recogni- 
tion. While  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago  students 
were  sent  abroad  for  a long  period  of  study,  it  is 
now  customary  to  send  students  only  for  one  or  two 
years  after  graduation  from  the  Japanese  Univer- 
sities, and  that  for  specialized  training  in  Europe  or 
America.  The  characteristics  of  this  new,  indige- 
nous educational  regime  are  evinced  in  a thorough 
going  system  of  education,  which  takes  the  Japa- 
nese boy  from  the  elementary  school  of  eight  years’ 
duration  through  the  secondary  school  which  he  ac- 
complishes in  four  years,  thence  to  the  National 
colleges  which  demand  another  three  years  of  his 
life  before  he  is  ready  for  the  altitude  of  his  edu- 
cational career,  the  Imperial  University,  where  he 
remains  from  three  to  four  years  longer,  according 
to  his  course,  graduating  at  the  average  age  of 
twenty-five. 

In  going  through  the  various  grades  of  Japanese 
schools  with  the  present  day  school  boy,  one  is  filled 
with  wonder  at  the  marvelous  educational  accom- 
plishment of  this  nation.  The  elementary  schools 
with  their  144,000  teachers  (40,000  being  women) 
and  six  million  pupils,  where  all  the  instruction  is 
in  Japanese,  and  where  attendance  is  compulsory 
and  as  a rule,  with  no  fees,  are  undoubtedly  among 
the  best  institutions  for  early  training  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  the  world.  The  proportion  of  chil- 
dren in  these  schools  in  contrast  to  the  children  of 
school  going  age  in  the  Empire,  is  98.8  per  cent,  for 
boys  and  97.2  per  cent,  for  girls.  These  schools  are 
organized  largely  upon  American  and  Belgian  pat- 
terns. The  teachers  get  a pittance  of  16  yen 
($8.00)  a month  and  yet  they  find  opportunity  to 


298  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


invigorate  their  minds  by  attendance  upon  summer 
schools  which  are  held  widely  through  the  country 
as  well  as  by  membership  in  various  educational 
societies.  The  chief  weakness  discovered  in  these 
institutions  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  youngsters  are 
expected  to  learn  some  2,000  Chinese  characters,  the 
majority  of  which  are  never  used.  The  baneful 
disadvantages  are  not  simply  in  the  subject  matter 
but  consist  in  the  fact  that  the  young  Japanese  in 
these  susceptible  years  acquires  the  memory  habit 
which  is  the  arch  enemy  of  independent  thoughtful- 
ness in  every  Oriental  nation. 

The  secondary  or  middle  schools  of  which  there 
are  300  for  boys  with  118,000  students  and  180  for 
girls  with  52,000  students,  cannot  be  so  highly  com- 
mended as  the  remarkably  efficient  elementary  insti- 
tutions. This  type  of  education  is  especially  in- 
adequate for  the  higher  education  of  Japanese 
women.  Coeducation  has  no  place  in  Japan  and 
there  seems  to  be  a wide  spread  reluctance  in  en- 
larging the  higher  educational  facilities  for  women, 
which  seems  ingratitude  in  a nation  industrially 
dependent  upon  its  women  and  where  there  are 
twice  as  many  women  as  men  in  the  employ  of  the 
government.  Yet  one  finds  normal  schools  and  cer- 
tain private  institutions  and  seminaries  for  women 
usually  under  missionary  management,  which  can 
be  highly  commended. 

The  fees  in  the  secondary  schools  are  three  yen 
a month  and  six  to  eight  yen  include  rooms  and 
board.  The  curriculum  in  these  schools  gives  spe- 
cial emphasis  to  Chinese  and  Yamato,  or  old  Japa- 
nese, which  languages  take  the  place  of  Latin  and 
Greek  of  our  Western  high  school.  Leibnitz  di- 


THE  SPIKIT  OF  EDUCATION 


299 


vided  the  world  into  two  parts — those  who  could 
read  Latin  and  those  who  could  not.  Substitute 
“English”  for  Latin  and  you  will  have  the  stand- 
ard of  division  in  Japan  to-day  according  to  stu- 
dents. English  is  the  study  of  first  importance,  six 
hours  a week  being  given  to  this  study  for  five 
years.  At  the  end  of  the  middle  school  period  the 
student  should  have  a reading  knowledge  of  Eng- 
lish, having  read  such  books  as  Dickens’  “Tale  of 
Two  Cities,”  “The  Christmas  Carol,”  Irving’s 
“Sketch  Book”  and  Franklin’s  “Autobiography.” 
This  English  is  for  reading  purposes  rather  than 
for  colloquial  uses  and  the  pride  of  the  young  Japa- 
nese student  in  his  English  acquirements  is  intense. 

The  National  colleges,  “Koto  Gakko,”  are  the  goal 
of  the  middle  school  student.  There  are  eight  of 
these,  supported  by  the  Government  and  they  com- 
prise the  sole  avenues  of  entrance  to  the  four  Im- 
perial Universities.  These  collegiate  institutions 
compare  in  training  with  the  usual  American  col- 
lege or  a first-class  English  public  school  or  a Ger- 
man gymnasium.  The  ages  of  the  students  range 
from  eighteen  to  twenty,  and  a rigorous  entrance 
examination  is  held,  since  there  is  room  in  these 
high-class  government  institutions  for  only  a small 
percentage  of  the  applicants.  The  government  col- 
lege in  Tokyo  which  is  the  oldest  and  the  most  pop- 
ular, with  an  enrolment  of  1,000  students,  is  able 
to  admit  each  year  but  three  hundred  freshmen 
though  its  applications  exceed  this  number  seven  or 
eight  times.  I shall  never  forget  the  look  of  anx- 
iety upon  the  faces  of  these  candidates  wdio  come  up 
to  the  Government  colleges  for  their  examinations. 
One  can  well  imagine  the  reasons  for  the  student- 


300  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


suicide  which  a few  years  ago  alarmed  Japan  when 
one  hears  the  pitiful  tales  that  are  told  regarding 
the  result  of  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Japanese 
student  to  secure  a coveted  place  in  the  national  col- 
leges. 

It  is  a very  touching  sight  to  watch  some  2,000  boys,” 
said  a college  President,  “the  pick  of  our  youth  from  all 
parts  of  the  Empire,  flocking  to  the  college  for  examination 
— to  watch  them  at  their  heavy  task,  all  the  time  knowing 
that  seven  out  of  every  eight  will  be  disappointed.  Those 
wdto  fail  one  year  can  try  again;  and  a great  many  do  try 
three  or  four  times,  and  in  exceptional  cases,  seven  or  eight 
times,  one  instance  of  perseverance  being  on  record  where 
success  crowned  the  fourteenth  attempt. 

Examination  times  are  tragic  and  pathologically 
pitiful  periods  in  educational  circles  in  this  country. 
Out  of  2,000  students,  perhaps  sixty  succeed,  leav- 
ing many  disappointed,  discouraged  ones  for  a year. 
Three  doctors  are  constantly  in  attendance  to  min- 
ister to  students.  Deaf  students  come  at  6 a.  m. 
for  front  seats  in  the  examination  hall.  The  wife 
of  a Professor  in  speaking  of  the  matter  said  that 
her  husband  was  a complete  wreck  after  the  days 
of  examination. 

“What  is  the  remedy  for  this  tragic  condition?” 
I asked.  The  teacher  answered,  “Convince  Japan 
to  build  fewer  warships  that  she  may  have  sufficient 
money  to  educate  her  Nation’s  youth!”  A signifi- 
cant answer  when  it  is  realized  that  army  and  navy 
expenditure  now7  absorbs  one-half  of  the  national 
revenue. 

At  the  apex  of  the  Japanese  educational  system  are 
the  four  Imperial  Universities,  a diploma  from  one 
of  whiclr  is  considered  the  highest  honor  for  Japa- 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  EDUCATION 


301 


nese  youth.  The  Imperial  University  at  Tokyo 
with  its  six  faculties  and  its  6,000  students  is  the 
oldest,  the  most  complete  and  the  most  honorary  of 
these  institutions  of  higher  learning.  The  lectures 
are  given  in  Japanese  though  there  are  about  one- 
half  dozen  foreign  professors  who  lecture  in  Eng- 
lish, French  and  German.  The  curriculum  com- 
pares favorably  with  that  of  other  first-class  Uni- 
versities and  its  high  quality  has  been  the  means  of 
attracting  to  Tokyo  probably  the  largest  number  of 
students  at  present  to  be  found  in  any  city  of  the 
world.  The  expenses  of  student  life  in  this  Uni- 
versity are  approximately  400  yen  ($200)  for  the 
whole  year,  which  amount  includes  tuition,  board, 
room,  and  books.  I was  especially  struck  with  the 
comradeship  amongst  the  members  of  the  faculty 
who  take  their  lunches  in  a kind  of  faculty  club, 
as  I was  also  impressed  with  the  lack  of  exhibition 
of  student  life  and  student  organization.  I do  not 
recall  visiting  any  institution  of  such  size  and  im- 
portance where  so  little  evidence  of  social  and  fra- 
ternal life  is  to  be  found.  No  clubs,  no  literary  so- 
cieties, no  student  journalism  to  speak  of,  few  dra- 
matics, and  very  little  of  that  esprit  de  corps  which 
is  so  commonly  found  in  Europe  and  America  about 
athletic  and  purely  college  activities. 

In  addition  to  this  line  of  Government  institu- 
tions, there  are  also  to  be  found  in  Tokyo  several 
other  centers  of  learning,  also  supported  by  the 
State  for  specialistic  study.  The  Higher  Normal 
College  where  so  many  teachers  are  trained  for  sec- 
ondary educational  work,  the  Higher  Commercial 
College  with  several  thousand  students,  the  naval 
and  military  school  and  the  college  for  Law.  While 


302  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


outside  of  these  institutions  and  not  supported  by 
Government,  there  are  to  be  found  some  excellent 
private  institutions  of  which  are  to  be  noted  Keio 
University  founded  by  Fukazawa,  one  of  the  makers 
of  new  Japan,  Doshisha  University  which  is  con- 
nected with  the  name  of  the  renowned  Christian, 
Joseph  Neeshima,  Waseda  University  founded  and 
guided  by  the  revered  statesman,  Count  Okuma,  to- 
gether with  a considerable  number  of  Christian 
schools  not  far  from  the  college  grade  of  which 
Aoyama  Gakuin  of  Tokyo  is  a fitting  example. 

With  such  a variety  and  grade  of  higher  educa- 
tion it  is  not  strange  that  Tokyo  has  become  the 
student  Mecca  of  Oriental  learning.  Here  are  to 
be  found  the  speculative  students  from  India,  and 
the  practical  Chinese,  looking  for  Western  scien- 
tific education,  and  also  a goodly  number  of  Corean 
students,  the  Cecil  Rhodes  scholars  of  the  East. 
The  Chinese  students  assume  the  regulation  dress 
of  the  various  colleges,  and,  but  for  their  walk  and 
the  peculiar  bland  smile  of  the  celestial,  one  would 
hardly  distinguish  them  from  the  native  born  Japa- 
nese. The  Chinese  revolution,  however,  called 
home  thousands  of  these  students  and  while  ten 
years  ago  there  were  at  least  twelve  thousand  stu- 
dents of  the  Middle  Kingdom  in  Tokyo,  it  would  be 
difficult  at  present  to  find  three  thousand  Chinese 
students  in  the  Japanese  capital.  The  widespread 
and  deep  influence  which  the  presence  of  the  Chi- 
nese students  in  Tokyo  has  exerted  upon  the  recent 
changes  in  China  is  immeasurable.  These  young 
men  coming  frequently  from  the  best  Chinese  fami- 
lies, for  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  have  been 
streaming  back  into  the  remote  parts  of  China  to 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  EDUCATION 


303 


carry  the  leaven  of  Western  ideas  and  becoming'  the 
real  forerunners  of  the  new  Chinese  order.  Al- 
though the  tide  of  Chinese  student  emigration  is  at 
present  strongly  toward  America,  due  largely  to  the 
use  of  the  returned  indemnity  fund,  now  being  used 
to  support  students  in  the  States,  there  are  recent 
signs  of  Chinese  youth  coming  in  increasing  num- 
bers to  avail  themselves  of  the  excellent  University 
privileges  found  here  in  Tokyo,  nearer  home  and  at 
much  less  expense. 


XXI 


Characteristics  of  Young  Japan 

NO  account  of  systems  of  education  adequately 
expresses  wliat  is  happening  in  the  present-day 
Japan  relative  to  the  training  of  the  Nation’s  youth. 
It  is  needful  to  come  into  intimate  contact  with  the 
student  himself  in  his  lecture  room,  in  his  home,  in 
his  Jeudo  halls  and  upon  his  long  walks,  to  study 
something  of  the  ideals  of  the  teachers,  to  ask  what 
all  of  this  education  is  about,  to  try  to  discover  the 
real  spirit  of  Japan  which  is  breathed  through  these 
new  and  rapidly  expanding  institutions,  to  seek  to 
know  in  what  manner  all  this  activity  engaging 
thousands  of  the  most  talented  youth,  is  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  politics,  commerce,  the  social,  and  the 
intellectual  life  of  the  Empire.  Some  years  ago  I 
was  told  that  upon  a bulletin  board  at  the  Imperial 
University  in  Tokyo  some  one  wrote  the  phrase 
“Japan  Leading  the  Orient.”  Later  a thoughtful 
student  passing,  added  to  the  phrase  the  significant 
word,  “Whither?”  It  is  this  query  which  has  been 
constantly  in  my  mind  as  I have  tried  to  study  the 
characteristics  of  the  Japanese  undergraduate, 
what  are  his  hopes,  his  ambitions,  and  his  fears?  Of 
what  stuff  is  he  made  and  how  is  he  differentiated 
from  his  Western  student  brother? 

An  early  impression  reached  by  the  foreigner  as 
he  mixes  with  various  kinds  of  students  from  the 
Sunrise  Kingdom  is  to  the  effect  that  the  Japanese 

304 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  305 


collegian  is  a far  more  teachable  and  more  easily 
ruled  creature  than  the  University  student  of  the 
West.  He  has  far  more  respect  for  his  professors, 
especially  in  the  Government  institutions  where  the 
professor  is  a regularly  appointed  officer  of  the 
Empire  and  holds  a position  of  official  honor  not  un- 
like that  of  a justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  Amer- 
ica. In  short  no  student  of  any  land  surpasses  him 
in  courtesy  and  deference.  A young  man  who  had 
been  studying  abroad  and  had  returned  to  Japan 
with  high  honors  and  a foreign  degree,  visited  his 
college  town,  and  meeting  the  professor  who  trained 
him,  gave  to  those  who  were  looking  on  the  evidence 
of  the  finest  reverence  one  could  imagine  passing 
between  men;  his  bows  were  profound  and  almost 
unceasing;  there  was  none  of  the  self-sufficient  ar- 
rogance which  is  too  often  evidenced  among  West- 
ern students  who  return  to  their  native  environ- 
ment after  successful  contact  with  the  outside 
world.  The  inherent  respect  for  the  teacher  is  con- 
nected in  Japan  with  the  old  Samurai,  who  them- 
selves were  closely  associated  with  the  learned  pro- 
fessions. I heard  of  only  two  instances  in  all  Ja- 
pan of  insubordination  among  students,  one,  against 
a cook  in  a college  boarding  house, — a strike 
among  students  over  bad  cooking  in  a secondary 
school  and,  as  the  narrator  said  to  me,  “The  cook 
who  was  carried  bodily  to  a small  lake  nearby,  and 
forcibly  submerged,  deserved  his  punishment.”  In 
what  nation  under  the  sun  have  students  been 
brought  together  in  boarding  houses  and  failed  to 
make  regular  and  constant  complaint  concerning 
“prunes”?  The  other  was  a somewhat  more  seri- 
ous protest  from  faculty  authority  which  ended  in 


306  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


a kind  of  love  feast  between  students  and  profes- 
sors— a real  educational  cordiale. 

The  Japanese  student,  however,  has  learned  be- 
fore college  days  the  ways  of  discipline  and  strict 
obedience.  His  attitude  is  one  of  true  and  national 
discipleship.  While  here,  as  in  all  countries,  the 
teacher  is  inclined  to  be  interested  in  his  subject 
rather  than  his  student,  and  while  the  official  char- 
acter of  the  instructor  forms  an  added  barrier  to 
intimate  relationship  between  the  professor  and  his 
pupil,  I have  discovered  instances  of  devotion  and 
friendship  which  are  convincing  proofs  of  the  deep 
seated  heart  quality  of  the  student  of  Japan. 

No  more  significant  student  incident  has  been 
brought  to  my  notice  during  the  entire  tour  than 
that  which  recently  occurred  in  Tokyo  when  Profes- 
sor Inazo  Nitobe,  the  former  head  of  the  first  Na- 
tional College,  found  it  necessary  to  resign  his  post. 
Prof.  Nitobe  had  been  for  years  one  of  the  few  men 
to  whom  students  voluntarily  come  with  their  prob- 
lems and  perplexities,  much  as  they  would  come  to 
an  intimate  confident  and  friend.  His  home  had 
been  open  to  them  at  all  hours  and  nothing  has  been 
too  trivial  or  unimportant  for  this  real  lover  of  stu- 
dents to  take  up  with  the  boys  of  his  large  college. 
The  news  of  his  resignation  came  to  the  students 
as  a personal  and  calamitous  shock.  They  besieged 
the  offices  of  the  Government,  demanding  that  he 
should  be  retained.  Student  meetings  were  held 
and  there  was  so  much  excitement  and  feeling  con- 
cerning the  matter,  that  the  Government  officials 
asked  Dr.  Nitobe  to  maintain  silence  in  relation  to 
the  matter  until  proper  announcements  could  be 
made  or  until  the  student  excitement  subsided. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  307 


When  the  news  of  his  retiring  from  the  college 
was  made  publicly  in  the  newspapers,  I am  told 
that  the  sorrow  of  the  students  was  extraordinary. 
Four  hundred  gathered  one  night  at  the  Profes- 
sor’s home  standing  outside  the  house  in  reverent 
silence  with  bared  heads.  Almost  as  far  as  one 
could  see,  there  were  crowds  of  students.  One  of 
the  spectators  said  to  me  that  he  feared  that  when 
certain  words  of  appreciation  were  being  given  the 
noise  in  the  street  would  interrupt  the  speaker  who 
was  reading  an  appreciation  of  this  beloved  teacher, 
but  upon  inquiry  he  found  that  the  streets  for 
blocks  were  filled  with  people  of  the  city  who  had 
been  affected  by  the  unusualness  of  the  scene  and 
who,  also  with  sober  faces,  were  joining  in  the  com- 
inon  sentiment  of  the  students.  In  spite  of  the  tra- 
ditional training  of  the  young  men  never  to  show 
emotion  in  public,  sobs  were  heard  coming  from  this 
closely  packed  band  of  youth,  and  after  Dr.  Nitobe 
had  appeared  and  spoken  a few  simple  and  loving 
words  to  his  boys,  silently,  without  cheers  or  any 
demonstration  whatever,  the  great  crowd  moved 
away  to  their  homes.  Upon  many  a student’s  wet 
face  there  was  pictured  the  sentiment  which,  on  oc- 
casion, has  always  been  called  forth  from  the  Japa- 
nese heart  for  the  ideal  or  the  person  of  their  de- 
votion. It  was  not  unlike  the  kind  of  patriotism 
which  the  Scotch  students  used  to  evince  towards 
Henry  Drummond,  who  as  George  Adam  Smith,  his 
biographer,  expressed  it,  furnished  to  students  a 
“healing  confessional”  into  which  many  a tired  and 
disappointed  boy  had  crept  to  speak  out  the  great 
and  almost  inexpressibly  difficult  things  of  his 
spirit,  then  to  go  quietly  away,  but  not  to  forget. 


308  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


The  value  of  that  kind  of  education  which  forms 
through  friendship  the  character,  quite  as  truly  as 
books  and  thoughts  form  the  intellect,  is  as  neces- 
sary as  it  is  opportune  at  present  in  Japan.  The 
strenuousness  of  his  studies  has  left  the  student  lit- 
tle opportunity  for  the  cementing  of  friendships  in 
college  associations.  There  is  much  need  of  a pro- 
vision well  considered,  by  which  the  young  collegi- 
ans shall  be  able  to  express  themselves  in  some  kind 
of  friendly  relation  to  their  teachers  and  to  their 
classmates ; especially  since  the  student  of  the  higher 
education  finds  no  such  confident  or  opportunity  of 
friendship  in  his  home.  In  most  cases,  he  has 
entered  through  University  doors  into  a world  un- 
known to  his  parents. 

In  a certain  lecture  room  in  Japan  I was  asked 
to  speak  to  the  students  and  I took  occasion  to  ask 
a few  questions.  I could  hardly  understand  the 
hesitation  with  which  the  questions  were  answered 
until  the  professor  explained  by  saying,  “Japanese 
students  are  never  asked  questions  in  lectures. 
They  are  only  required  to  take  notes  of  the  teacher, 
therefore,  their  lack  of  readiness  in  reply.” 

This  baneful  absence  of  student  co-operation 
runs  through  the  whole  instructional  life  of  Japan, 
and  has  eventuated  from  the  endless  overload  of 
lectures  given  by  professors  whose  chief  object 
seems  to  be  to  take  the  whole  time  themselves,  in 
presenting  endless  evidences  of  their  erudition. 
The  Japanese  student  is  not  only  beset  by  examina- 
tions, but  these  examinations  have  made  necessary 
an  abject  slavery  to  the  note  book.  “What  do  your 
students  read?”  I asked  a company  of  Imperial 
University  students.  “Our  note  books,”  answered 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  309 


a son  of  one  of  Japan’s  leading  barons.  He  spoke 
the  truth.  Only  two  books  were  mentioned,  one  was 
Kipling’s  “Jungle  Book,”  the  other  “John  Halifax, 
Gentleman.”  Knowledge  may  come  but  wisdom 
will  linger  in  every  such  process  of  training.  Bacon 
sagely  remarks,  “Knowledge  dwells  in  heads  re- 
plete with  thoughts  of  other  men;  wisdom  in  minds 
attentive  to  their  own.”  Emerson  said  that  great 
genial  power  consists  in  not  being  confined  at  all 
but  rather  in  things  receptive. 

Much  of  the  subject  matter  of  higher  instruction 
does  not  appear  in  text  books  but  must  be  copied 
from  the  professors’  lectures.  As  a result,  yon  will 
see  crowds  of  students  remaining  after  the  lectures 
correcting  their  notes  from  each  other,  while  in  pub- 
lic conveyances,  in  the  homes  and  even  in  the  streets 
yon  will  find  boys  with  their  bags  of  note  books  to 
which  they  cling  as  to  their  most  precious  posses- 
sion. I should  say  that  the  student  in  Japan  comes 
nearer  being  lectured  to  death  than  any  other  stu- 
dent with  whom  I am  acquainted.  He  usually  is 
obliged  to  spend  from  twenty-eight  to  thirty-four 
hours  a week  in  the  lecture  room,  all  this  time  re- 
ceiving, rarely  being  called  upon  for  any  thought- 
ful or  active  co-operative  response  to  this  great 
mass  of  dictated  knowledge,  which  the  professors 
are  pouring  into  his  already  crowded  mind.  He  is 
made  a veritable  cistern  for  the  deposit  of  undi- 
gested information.  He  gives  no  evidence  of  a 
“stream  of  consciousness,”  such  as  Professor  James 
talked  about.  It  is  no  wonder  he  is  suffering  from 
mental  dyspepsia.  He  does  not  love  his  note  books 
and  his  examinations  as  perhaps  the  Indian  student 
does,  but  there  is  no  recourse.  The  Japanese 


310  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


method  of  education  has  insisted  upon  giving  the 
student  youth  quite  twice  as  much  work  in  the 
higher  grades  as  he  can  or  ought  to  master,  and  still 
have  time  for  exercising  his  own  mental  independ- 
ence, not  to  speak  of  having  an  opportunity  for 
proper  recreation,  exercise  and  social  development. 
As  I was  coming  out  of  the  higher  Normal  College 
with  Baron  Kanda,  I said  to  him,  “What  proportion 
of  time  is  given  to  lectures  hy  these  students  who 
are  rushing  in  to  answer  the  stroke  of  the  bell,  in 
contrast  to  the  number  of  hours  you  gave  as  a stu- 
dent at  Amherst?”  He  answered,  “I  gave  eighteen 
hours  a week  to  lectures,  and  these  students  are  giv- 
ing thirty-four.” 

To  be  sure,  it  may  he  said  in  compensation,  that 
the  Japanese  student  is  saved  from  the  dangers  of 
ultra-athleticism,  as  well  as  from  certain  immoral 
tendencies  which  tempt  the  leisure  hours  of  West- 
ern collegians.  He  is  excluded  from  such  tempta- 
tions hy  sheer  lack  of  time  and  opportunity.  His 
college  days  are  not  a wild  joy  of  living.  You  feel 
nothing  of  the  rollicking,  easy-going  air  of  the 
American  college  here  in  Japan.  There  are  no  col- 
lege celebrities  and  no  great  athletic  heroes  to  dis- 
tract the  attention  of  the  Japanese  youth.  It  is  a 
period  of  severe  and  anxious  servitude.  Many  a 
student  goes  down  before  the  end  through  over 
work.  Not  a few  of  the  suicides  of  recent  years  in 
Japan  are  due  to  this  execrable  system.  It  is  a 
survival  of  the  fittest,  and  health,  culture,  and  social 
enlargement  are  placed  in  the  scale  against  an  ed- 
ucation. The  teachers  are  usually  conscious  of  the 
iniquity  of  this  system  and  would  change  it,  hut 
they,  with  the  students,  are  swept  into  a national 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  311 


system  of  cramming,  which  not  only  stultifies  the 
mind,  but  cramps  the  character  of  the  nation’s 
youth.  It  is  imitation,  receptiveness,  and  respon- 
siveness running  riot  and  taken  advantage  of.  It 
leaves  no  free  period  when  the  imaginative  faculty 
can  rise  to  the  surface.  This  double  bane  of  ex- 
amination and  lecture  plan  takes  children  at  twelve 
years  old  on  examination  and  from  that  point  on- 
ward until  the  youth  is  twenty-five  or  twenty-six 
years  of  age,  there  swings  above  his  head,  like  a 
Damoclean  sword,  the  ominous  necessity  of  note 
taking,  marks,  and  examination  machinery. 

"While  there  is  nothing  like  the  opportunities  for 
self-support  among  Japanese  students  as  is  to  be 
found  in  America  or  Europe,  one  finds,  neverthe- 
less, that  many  young  men  ‘‘work  their  way” 
through  college.  The  old  time  custom  of  a patron 
or  teacher  or  some  person  of  rank  and  prominence 
assisting  students  through  school  is  yet  prevalent. 
There  is  also  the  custom  which  is  generally  known 
in  Japan  as  jiuku  whereby  two  or  more  students 
are  invited  to  be  the  guests  of  a professor  during 
their  college  course.  They  become  regular  mem- 
bers of  the  household.  These  students  often  help 
the  professor  in  various  ways,  giving  him  clerical 
assistance,  tutoring  his  children  or  assisting  by 
certain  manual  work  or  errands  in  the  home.  They 
are  closely  allied  to  the  professor  and  the  relation- 
ships are  often  exceedingly  valuable  and  intimate. 
I was  the  guest  in  one  home  where  three  such  stu- 
dents were  receiving  their  board  and  room  for  four 
years  at  nominal  cost. 

In  addition  to  such  benevolences  given  to  students, 
there  is,  especially  in  larger  cities,  varying  kinds  of 


312  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


self-supporting  labor  on  the  part  of  young  men  seek- 
ing an  education.  In  Tokyo  there  is  an  organiza- 
tion of  students  whose  purpose  it  is  to  assist  one 
another  in  securing  positions.  One  will  find  here 
young  men  engaging  in  all  kinds  of  self-supporting 
labor,  ranging  from  the  teaching  of  English  to  the 
selling  of  papers  and  the  cleaning  of  boots.  If  a 
young  man  can  secure  15  yen  ($7.50)  per  month,  he 
will  have  a sufficiency  to  supply  his  bodily  wants. 
In  a country  where  the  average  wage  is  $.50  a day 
without  food,  when  a family  of  four  persons  can  live 
on  $12  a month,  rice,  a sleeping  mat,  and  a hot  bath 
compensate  him  for  a thousand  Western  accessories 
to  comfort.  One  teacher  told  me  that  among  his 
University  students  one  boy  supports  himself  by 
working  for  an  American  insurance  company,  an- 
other adapts  plays  for  a theater ; a number  are  edi- 
tors and  sub-editors  of  magazines  and  periodicals; 
while  still  others  teach  English  in  night  schools. 

I have  been  told  of  students  who  even  drew  jin- 
rikishas  at  night,  hard  and  humiliating  as  the  work 
may  be,  while  others  sweep  gardens,  do  copying  and 
run  errands  for  offices  as  well  as  picking  up  a few 
yen  by  washing,  mending  and  darning.  Much  of 
the  same  independence  and  power  of  self-support 
found  among  certain  students  of  the  Western  states, 
is  evident  among  the  industrious  youth  of  Japan.  I 
know  of  a young  man  who  was  obliged  to  borrow 
his  passage  money  to  get  to  America  and  who  ex- 
pected to  land  in  Seattle,  virtually  without  money 
and  without  friends,  to  work  his  way  across  the  con- 
tinent to  a technical  school  in  the  East,  where  he 
had  determined  to  finish  his  scientific  education. 
When  I expressed  my  surprise  that  he  should  at- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  313 


tempt,  particularly  in  a foreign  land,  so  difficult  an 
undertaking  of  mingled  self-support  and  study,  the 
student  said:  “Oh,  I can  do  anything,  you  know. 
I shall  surely  get  on.” 

The  brand  of  Japanese  athleticism  is  a twofold 
composite  of  old  Samurai  and  American.  Jiu-jitsu 
and  fencing  are  taken  for  granted  as  the  hereditary 
accomplishments  of  a thoroughly  educated  gentle- 
man, while  baseball  and  lawn  tennis  represent  the 
“modern  side”  in  the  physical  education  of  the 
youth  of  Nippon. 

The  foreigner  visits  the  large,  finely  appointed 
Jeudo  halls  of  the  government  institutions  with  the 
keenest  interest.  There  is  nothing  like  them  in  the 
world  outside  of  Japan.  The  floors  are  thickly  cov- 
ered with  fine  straw  matting,  with  springs  under- 
neath to  ease  the  fall.  The  contestants  for  Jeudo, 
as  it  is  popularly  called  in  modem  parlance,  are 
dressed  in  a special  costume  of  thick,  white  material 
that  furnishes  a firm  handhold  without  tearing. 
Over  many  of  the  halls  I found  the  motto,  which 
translated,  signifies  “freedom  of  movement”;  the 
idea  of  the  sport  being  the  power  to  fall  in  such  an 
easy  and  relaxed  way  as  to  be  immune  to  injury. 
Virtually  all  Japanese  students  take  part  in  Jeudo. 
It  is  a sight  of  rare  uniqueness  to  see  a hundred  or 
more  youth,  first  bumping  their  heads  upon  the  mat- 
ting to  each  other  in  sportsmanlike  introduction  to 
their  contest,  and  then  starting  in  like  mad  upon  the 
national  Japanese  exercise.  It  is  a veritable  pano- 
rama of  flying  schoolboys,  of  brown  heels  in  the  air, 
heads  and  legs  hanging  on  the  matting,  rolling  bod- 
ies and  smiling  faces.  It  is  all  carried  on  in  com- 
parative silence  save  for  the  resounding  thuds  made 


314  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


by  the  bodies  of  the  students  alighting  upon  the  floor 
space,  and  curling  up  very  much  in  the  shape  of 
round  balls.  I am  told  that  one  needs  to  begin  very 
young  in  order  to  become  at  all  expert  in  this  vig- 
orous sport.  It  is  so  universal,  however,  that  one 
sees  commonly  the  Japanese  student  carrying  in  one 
hand  his  bag  of  books  and  in  the  other  his  little  kit 
of  clothing  and  sticks  used  for  Jeudo  and  fencing. 

Student  fencing  is  quite  another  thing  than  the 
word  connotes  in  the  West.  There  is  no  slashing 
of  faces  as  at  Heidelberg,  none  of  the  “ touche”  at- 
mosphere of  the  French  fencing-master.  The 
“foil”  here  is  a formidable  thick  club,  something 
like  a single  stick  only  longer  and  much  larger  in 
circumference  and  made  of  bamboo  rods  bound 
closely  together  to  prevent  breaking.  The  contest- 
ants are  clothed  in  heavy  canvas  suits,  their  sides 
protected  by  thick  leather  paddings.  They  wear 
large  wire  protected  helmets,  resembling  somewhat 
the  American  baseball-catcher’s  mask.  The  signal 
is  given  and  the  combatants  fall  lengthwise  upon 
the  mattings  facing  each  other  upon  their  stomachs, 
this  is  for  courtesy  sake  (and  the  Japanese  are 
equaled  by  no  people  in  courtesy),  and  this  is  their 
manner  of  exchanging  compliments  previous  to  the 
battle.  They  then  rise  and  with  a savage  yell  which 
might  come  out  of  any  jungle,  begin  to  brandish 
their  clubs,  beating  each  other  in  the  side,  over  the 
head  or  thrusting  for  the  throat.  A strike  upon  the 
wrist  is  considered  the  blow  par  excellence.  It  is 
truly  the  din  of  battle.  No  “ fighting-knight-wise  ” 
of  old  Bushido  days  could  give  the  impression  of 
greater  rudeness,  wildness,  and  barbarity  in  both 
sound  and  strength  expended.  Exchange  the  bam- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  315 


boo  clubs  for  the  short  swords  and  you  have  a 
well  preserved  relic  of  fhe  days  of  feudal  chivalry. 
There  is  probably  no  more  exhausting  sport  extant, 
for  the  contestant  puts  out  his  entire  strength,  the 
result  being  an  exercise  well  intended  to  strike  ter- 
ror to  the  heart  of  the  uninitiated.  Mass  football 
in  America  is  a parlor  pastime  in  impression  as 
compared  with  this  fencing.  The  whole  Japanese 
power  of  alertness  and  agility,  rapidity,  and  watch- 
fulness is  at  its  maximum.  While  witnessing  some  of 
the  larger  student  clubs  of  fencing  in  the  Imperial 
Universities,  where  the  resounding  knocks  upon  the 
heads  of  the  students  seemed  to  me  to  be  a sure 
means  of  annihilation,  my  feelings  were  much  like 
those  expressed  by  a Chinese  Minister  to  Washing- 
ton, Mr.  Wu  Ting  Fang,  who  witnessed  his  first  foot- 
ball game  at  Harvard.  After  noticing  a dozen  or 
more  men  piled  seemingly  with  deadly  purpose  upon 
one  poor  student  at  the  bottom  of  the  heap,  he  in- 
quired solicitously,  “Is  he  dead  yet?” 

But  the  students  of  this  land,  which  has  borrowed 
Buddhism  from  India,  Confucianism  from  China, 
military  methods  from  Germany,  naval  arrange- 
ment from  England,  and  modern  educational  proce- 
dure from  the  entire  world,  find  no  difficulty  in 
revealing  further  their  selective  proclivity  by 
choosing  American  baseball  and  making  it  the  most 
popular  present-day  Japanese  sport.  Lawn  tennis 
has  also  a considerable  vogue,  but  cricket  has  failed 
to  find  a congenial  soil  among  the  athletes  of  the 
Island  Empire.  Americans  have  already  had  an 
opportunity  to  see  the  readiness  with  which  the  Japa- 
nese students  have  adjusted  themselves  to  the  Amer- 
ican national  sport  in  several  baseball  teams  sent 


316  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


to  the  States,  teams  that  have  acquitted  themselves 
with  no  little  favor.  In  this,  as  in  so  many  cases 
in  other  departments  of  life,  Japanese  intelligence 
has  proved  its  elasticity,  its  quick  discernment,  its 
rapid  accomplishment.  Japan’s  motto,  made  evi- 
dent in  many  ways,  is  “To  polish  our  gems  with 
stones  quarried  in  other  lands.” 

While  I was  in  Japan  a baseball  team  from  Stan- 
ford University  visited  Tokyo,  and  found  the  Japa- 
nese students  opponents  worthy  of  their  best  skill. 
One  of  the  games  which  created  considerable  notice 
brought  out  the  fact  that  it  is  possible  to  copy  a 
method  without  reproducing  the  spirit  thereof ; that 
it  takes  generations  to  make  good  sportsmen,  as 
it  does  to  bring  breadth  and  perspective  in  other 
realms  of  activity.  In  a closely  contested  game  the 
decision  of  the  umpire  was  manifestly  unjust  and 
decidedly  in  favor  of  the  Japanese  team.  The  for- 
eigners, with  many  of  the  Japanese  spectators,  re- 
vealed their  disapprobation,  as  did  several  of  the 
newspapers  the  following  day.  The  Stanford  boys, 
however,  uttered  no  protest,  and,  which  is  the  disap- 
pointing part,  the  Japanese  students  did  not  accept 
their  opportunity  to  refuse  in  a high-minded  fash- 
ion, a victory  gained  by  manifestly  unjust  decisions : 
the  result  being  that  in  an  eleven  inning  game  the 
students  from  Keio  University  won,  according  to 
the  umpire,  but  the  defeat  of  the  Stanford  men,  in  the 
minds  of  the  majority  of  the  spectators,  counted  for 
more  than  their  victory  might  have  done. 

Another  feature  of  the  game  which  revealed  in 
an  amusing  way  the  devoted  loyalty  of  the  Japanese 
for  the  Japanese,  was  evident  when,  in  order  to  even 
up  the  cheering,  some  of  the  younger  Japanese  stu- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  317 


dents  were  placed  with  the  Stanford  sympathizers 
with  American  flags  in  their  hands,  and  instructed 
to  cheer  for  the  visitors.  This  they  did,  somewhat 
reluctantly,  before  the  game  began,  but  as  soon  as 
the  contest  became  exciting,  the  youngsters  quite 
forgot  their  instruction  to  be  courteous  to  the  for- 
eigners, and  joined  lustily  in  cheers  and  yells,  not 
for  Stanford,  but  for  their  Japanese  college  mates. 

American  and  European  students  must  needs  have 
advanced  farther  than  at  present  in  clear-eyed  un- 
professional impartiality  in  games  before  they  can 
become  too  harsh  censors  of  these  learners  of  mod- 
ern sports,  who  have  had  two  dozen  years  to  rise 
to  the  high  level  of  fair  play  in  college  athleticism. 
In  one  respect  too,  Japan  may  well  point  a lesson  to 
Western,  and  especially  American  college  men,  for 
in  spite  of  their  great  love  for  baseball  and  out-of- 
door  sports,  they  have  not  allowed  these  exercises 
to  encroach  upon  their  serious  intellectual  interests. 
There  is  no  sense  in  which  the  athletic  side- 
shows “have  swallowed  up  the  circus’ ’ in  Japan. 
The  great  distinction  and  in  fact  the  only  distinc- 
tion to  be  gained  in  a Japanese  University  is  the 
distinction  of  brains  and  mental  accomplishment. 
Japanese  students  undoubtedly  are  the  losers  in  cer- 
tain lines  of  all-round  development,  in  personal 
responsibility,  and  in  leadership  training,  because 
of  the  absence  of  almost  every  kind  of  student  organ- 
ization known  in  the  West;  but  they  recognize  cer- 
tain compensations  in  the  reduction  of  excesses, 
moral  and  physical,  which  surround  too  many  of 
our  own  college  holiday  bacchanalian  orgies.  If 
Japan  preserves  her  present  balance  of  mind  and 
the  habit  of  “proving  all  things  and  holding  to  that 


318  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


which  is  good,”  profiting  by  her  close  scrutiny  of 
student  values  and  student  failures  in  her  world- 
wide commissions  of  critical  investigation,  she  will 
doubtless  suffer  no  loss  in  not  being  counted  first  in 
international  athletics.  In  the  last  analysis  a na- 
tion is  not  judged  by  the  strength  of  its  body  so 
much  as  by  the  sovereignty  of  its  ideas. 

But  the  secret  of  Japanese  education  is  not  fully 
solved  through  the  study  of  either  educational  meth- 
ods or  athletic  exercises,  neither  does  it  exist  in  the 
material  display  of  military  or  commercial  power, 
but,  for  Japan  at  least,  it  lies  in  larger  measure 
than  outsiders  sometimes  suppose,  in  what  Lafcadio 
Hearn  styles,  her  ‘ ‘ Race  Ghost  ’ ’ — in  the  genius  and 
spirit  of  “Bushido,”  a word  bearing  a national 
timbre,  the  Soul  of  her  hereditary  Past. 

It  must  be  with  a feeling  of  trepidation  that  a 
foreigner  makes  any  attempt  at  analysis  of  that  pe- 
culiar and  well-nigh  indefinable  force  which  the 
most  discerning  Japanese  will  tell  you,  they  them- 
selves cannot  accurately  define.  One  can  at  best 
only  discern  flashes  and  stray  glimpses  of  this  spirit 
by  way  of  incidents  or  expressions  caught  in  uncon- 
scious moments  from  this  highly  sensitive  and  com- 
posite people. 

To  be  sure  the  days  of  chain  armor  and  catapults 
are  past — Feudalism  and  the  old  Samurai  with  his 
two  swords,  one  for  defense,  the  other  for  himself  if 
honor  demand,  are  no  more.  But  in  the  trail  of 
these  far-reaching  ancient  forces,  there  is  to  be  found 
a peculiar  spirit,  a kind  of  deep-seated  sentimental- 
ism, which  at  times  seems  definable  as  sacrifice,  self- 
abnegation  or  a sort  of  semi-religious  patriotism, 
making  it  possible  for  the  Japanese,  on  occasion,  to 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  319 


rise  to  the  very  summit  of  a wave  of  mighty  emotion 
and  self-sacrificing  activity.  It  was  something  of 
this  mingled  reserve  and  inertia  that  caused  four 
hundred  Samurai,  whose  swords  were  their  souls,  to 
carry  their  daggers  sheathed  for  250  years  while 
Japan  went  to  school  to  Chinese  history  and  Chinese 
ethics.  And  then,  as  occasion  offered,  to  draw  these 
blades  with  all  the  nervous  excitability  of  an  impas- 
sioned and  sentimental  people,  counting  not  their 
lives  dear  in  their  relentless  and  irresistible  strug- 
gles with  their  neighbors,  China  and  Russia.  One 
finds  this  peculiar  force  on  many  a Japanese  occa- 
sion. In  the  war  with  Russia,  Admiral  Togo  called 
his  officers  to  his  cabin  and  said  simply,  “We  sail 
to-night  and  our  enemy  flies  the  Russian  flag.”  On 
a tray  before  him  lay  a short  dagger  used  to  commit 
“Sappuka”  (self-despatch).  The  officers  under- 
stood his  meaning. 

The  students  of  Japan  have  not  only  inherited  this 
genius  of  their  Samurai  ancestors  (men  are  but  chil- 
dren of  larger  growth),  but  this  peculiar  quality 
is  always  to  be  reckoned  upon  in  dealing  with  the 
tens  of  thousands  of  young  men  who,  with  high  am- 
bitions are  spending  laborious  days  and  nights  in 
fitting  themselves  for  Japan’s  new  reforms.  When 
one  least  expects  sentiment  and  the  breaking  out  of 
this  slumbering  race  spirit,  a trivial  incident  brings 
it  to  attention. 

On  Degree  Day,  the  scene  is  one  of  high  color  and 
charm ; the  Great  Red  Gate  of  the  Imperial  Univer- 
sity, famous  in  Japanese  story,  is  to-day  virtually 
covered  by  flags  and  streamers.  Within  the  gates, 
in  long  orderly  rows,  stand  officials  high  in  rank, 
members  of  cabinets,  professors  who  are  also  Gov- 


320  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


ernment  officials,  honorable  personages,  barons, 
counts,  and  students.  Presently  an  outrider  ap- 
pears announcing  the  approach  of  His  Majesty. 
Expectancy  is  in  the  air.  As  the  Emperor  arrives 
he  is  greeted  with  august  silence.  All  heads  are 
bowed,  there  is  no  beat  of  drums,  no  guns,  no  accla- 
mations, no  wild  huzzas,  no  motion  of  the  vast  as- 
semblage. The  Emperor  of  Japan  by  Divine  right, 
drives  slowly  along  in  the  dead  silence  of  a worship- 
ful populace.  Of  what  are  these  people  thinking  as 
this  personification  of  Nippon’s  ancient  line  of 
Sovereigns  passes  ? It  is  a strange  scene,  an  unintel- 
ligible sentiment  to  Westerners  who  demand  action 
for  the  expression  of  their  innermost  feelings. 

After  the  Emperor  has  passed,  the  long  line  forms 
and  marches  into  the  Great  Hall  where  the  speeches 
are  made  and  the  diplomas  and  prizes  are  handed  in 
silence  to  the  winners,  the  whole  audience  standing 
meanwhile.  Here  also  there  is  no  applause,  no 
music,  no  sound  save  the  voices  of  the  Deans  calling 
the  students’  names.  It  resembles  more  a great 
memorial  meeting  than  anything  to  which  the  West- 
erner can  liken  it.  There  is  no  touch  of  our  Euro- 
pean or  American  joy  or  joke  making,  no  class 
spirit  evincing  itself,  no  cheering  of  successful  com- 
petitors. All  is  order  and  a reverent  air  pervades 
the  entire  ceremony.  In  the  midst  of  this  unique 
occasion,  one  has  pictured  a thoughtful  student. 
He  is  clad  in  the  uniform  of  the  University,  and 
suddenly  while  the  diplomas  are  in  process  of  dis- 
tribution he  rises  abruptly  and  walks  out  of  the 
building  with  a dejected  and  melancholy  air,  strid- 
ing out  towards  the  Red  Gate  as  one  who  has 
fought  and  lost.  But  it  is  not  because  he  has  failed. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  321 


This  student  is  a Yutosei,  graduate  of  law,  who  has 
also  won  the  Emperor’s  prize.  He  has  obtained 
the  highest  degree  the  University  of  Tokyo  can  be- 
stow. 

His  dejection  has  arisen  from  another  cause,  even 
from  that  which  the  narrator  describes  as  the  Jap- 
anese idealism,  the  sentiment  of  unfulfilled  longings 
which  must  break  through  at  times  the  repressive 
reserve  of  hereditary  restraint.  The  student  as  he 
reveals  himself  to  us  feels  crowding  upon  him  the 
responsibilities  of  the  future,  he  is  filled  with  emo- 
tion as  he  thinks  of  the  ending  of  these  twenty  years 
or  more  of  student  associations.  The  ambition  to 
accomplish  a destiny  worthy  of  his  ancestors,  the 
burden  of  tasks  just  ahead  of  him  in  the  world  which 
will  be  difficult  of  performance.  He  rushes  away  to 
his  lodgings  and  will  not  be  comforted.  He  is  struck 
with  that  strange  melancholy  that  lies  imbedded  in 
the  heart  of  the  nation,  the  melancholy  whose  seeds 
when  brought  to  fruition  often  eventuate  incongru- 
ously in  despair  or  suicide;  it  is  the  quality  of  a 
high-spirited  ancestry,  hard  and  stern  as  steel,  while 
the  task  is  on,  but  repressed  and  subdued,  and  often 
poignantly  self-conscious  in  its  reactions  and  relaxa- 
tions. 

It  is  this  sentimental  side  of  the  Japanese  nature 
that  so  perplexes  the  foreigner.  Repeatedly  I have 
been  told  in  Japan  by  Japanese  as  well  as  foreign- 
ers, that  the  cause  for  protest  in  the  California  mis- 
understanding is  a matter  of  hurt  feelings,  a 
wounded  racial  pride  rather  than  any  economic  or 
political  disadvantage.  The  Japanese  youth  has  in- 
herited a twofold  and  incongruous  past,  part  stern- 
ness, part  sentiment ; Spartan  disregard  of  danger 


322  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


and  pain  goes  hand  in  hand  with  true  Eastern  devo- 
tion to  feeling  and  duty.  It  is  like  the  ocean  stream 
that  washes  the  shore  of  these  islands — one  part  is 
cold,  and  the  other  warm.  The  Japanese  has  fitly 
been  called  the  child  of  his  mother,  trained  in  the 
school  of  his  father.  He  thinks  like  a man,  but  he 
feels  like  a woman.  He  possesses  what  Lotze  calls 
“the  sentimental  temperament.”  He  has,  with  all 
his  firmness  and  strict  discipline,  a feminine  trait. 
Certain  fathers  recognize  this  and  they  send  their 
boys  to  special  boarding  houses  where  they  live 
during  their  college  course  with  a certain  austerity 
far  from  the  caressing  care  of  their  mothers  and 
grandmothers.  But  this  high  feeling,  this  spirit  of 
honor  as  difficult  to  understand  as  is  the  caste  of 
India  or  the  “face”  of  China,  is  always  present, 
ready  to  rise  to  the  surface  as  a kind  of  perennial 
touchiness,  a high  honor-sense,  looking,  at  times,  for 
offense  in  trivial  matters,  and,  as  the  teachers  of 
Japan  will  tell  you,  is  evident  in  the  film  that  passes 
over  the  eyes  of  the  students  in  the  classroom  when 
incidents  of  deep  significance  or  feeling  are  read 
or  narrated.  It  is  akin  to  religion. 

What  is  to  be  the  future  religion  of  Japan?  I 
asked  of  statesmen,  business  and  professional  men 
and  Government  officials.  The  answers  were  some- 
what diverse.  Among  the  replies  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

“There  is  no  religion  in  Japan  among  educated 
men,”  said  a Professor  of  the  Imperial  University. 

“The  future  religion  will  be  Christianity  with 
modifications,”  said  a Christian  missionary. 

“It  is  a big  question,”  answered  Count  Okuma, 
who  is  supposed  to  be  a kind  of  Japanese  Unitarian, 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  323 


“but  it  will  not  be  Christianity  as  the  West  now 
knows  it,  not  the  Christianity  of  theology  and  creed.  ’ ’ 

“Pantheism,”  said  a Japanese  Buddhist,  “with 
a decided  tendency  toward  Buddhism,  providing  our 
priests  reform.” 

“The  religion  of  the  future,”  said  a keen  foreign 
observer,  a lawyer  who  had  lived  in  Japan  for  a 
quarter  of  a century,  “will  be  an  amalgam  of  an- 
cestor worship,  Buddhism,  Shinto  as  applied  to  Im- 
perial loyalty,  and  Christian  social  service.” 

After  making  two  visits  to  Japan  and  conversing 
with  a very  large  number  of  educated  men,  I am 
inclined  to  think  that  the  opinion  expressed  by  the 
foreign  lawyer,  represents  the  future  development 
of  Japanese  religion.  The  tendency  is  toward  a 
composite  of  East  and  West  rather  than  in  the  di- 
rection of  a clear-cut  Western  faith,  and  such  a reli- 
gion will  not  be  the  work  of  a day  or  a generation, 
for  great  religions  amongst  a great  people  are 
products  of  growth  and  are  not  cataclysmic. 
“Seek  knowledge  throughout  the  world,”  was  the 
Imperial  Edict,  which  made  religious  faith  free  in 
Japan.  A state  religion  like  that  of  Germany  or 
England  is  scarcely  a future  possibility. 

Confucian  influences  which  were  introduced  into 
Japan  1,500  years  ago  became  the  foundation  of 
Japanese  education  and  ethics,  much  as  Greek  and 
Roman  culture  formed  the  background  of  Euro- 
pean learning.  Confucianism,  which  gave  Japan 
three  hundred  rules  for  courtesy  and  three  thou- 
sand rules  for  conduct,  has  done  too  much  for  the 
Sunrise  Kingdom,  and  is  too  firmly  woven  into  the 
warp  and  woof  of  her  life  and  thought,  to  cease  to 
form  a strong  strand  in  the  texture  of  her  future 


324  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


faith.  Indeed,  had  this  old  ethical  culture  been  em- 
phasized more  strongly,  and  Confucian  history  and 
politics  less,  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  mod- 
ern nation. 

Visitors  to  Tokyo  journey  over  the  Kudan  Hill 
to  see  a shrine  dedicated  to  those  “immortal  dead” 
who  have  given  themselves  freely  on  the  fields  of 
war  and  whose  names  now  appear  in  living  char- 
acters and  are  read  by  the  Nation’s  youth  with  a 
veneration  not  known  to  the  Western  hoys  and  girls, 
to  whom  a monument  is  a dismal  and  minatory 
spectacle.  To  the  tourist,  indeed,  such  shrines  are 
like  a hundred  other  “sights”  meaningless  and  com- 
monplace; one  American  tourist  was  heard  to  re- 
mark at  Ise;  “There  is  nothing  to  see  in  Yamada, 
and  what  there  is  to  see  is  not  to  he  seen.” 

But  many  thousand  students  of  the  new  Japan 
have  been  brought  in  boyhood  to  these  places  as  to 
the  places  of  the  canonized  and  deified  dead,  and 
told  in  the  hush  of  religious  feeling,  that  their  fa- 
ther’s spirit  lingers  invisibly  about  this  spot;  they 
may  not  talk  of  religion,  but  these  things  they  re- 
member and  understand.  The  head  of  a large  col- 
lege said  that  he  had  seen  a widow  leading  her  child 
to  the  Shrine  at  Kudan  Hill,  and  had  heard  her 
saying,  “Look  well!  He  is  there,  do  you  not  see 
him?” 

An  Imperial  decree  was  sent  abroad  in  1881  stat- 
ing that  to  bow  or  not  to  bow  before  a Shrine  is  a 
matter  of  indifference  as  regards  religious  faith; 
it  does  not  commit  one  to  any  religion — but  out  of 
the  mingled  idea  of  ancestor  worship  and  Shinto 
devotion  instilled  in  childhood  there  comes  a voice 
to  the  modern  Japanese  undergraduate  that  rings 


A room  in  an  inn  at  Xara,  showing  the  scroll  of  Good  Luck, 
the  charcoal  brazier,  and  of  course,  the  ubiquitous  nasan  or 
serving-maid 


(C)  Stereo-Travel  Co. 

Tea  can  be  had  at  any  time  and  at  any  place  in  Japan,  al- 
though the  ancient  ceremony  which  once  accompanied  the 
drinking  of  tea  is  now  obsolete 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  325 


through  the  corridors  of  his  man’s  memory,  careless 
and  agnostic  as  he  may  claim  to  be,  regarding  things 
spiritual. 

This  mosaic  of  religion  seems  to  be  based  upon 
nature  rather  than  upon  revelation.  I said  to 
a thoughtful  University  boy  whose  father  had  lived 
for  years  in  England  and  who  was  quite  accus- 
tomed to  Westernized  homes  and  modern  scien- 
tific invention,  “What  is  your  chief  pleasure  during 
your  vacation  hours  ? ” I expected  he  would  answer 
as  the  Egyptian  schoolboys  answered  the  question, 
“Automobiles,  aeroplanes,  out-of-door  athletics,” 
but  he  answered  thoughtfully,  “to  take  long  walks 
with  my  college  friend  in  the  woods  and  by  the 
little  inland  waterfalls,  where  we  talk  and  think  of 
what  we  will  do  worthy  of  our  country.  ’ ’ I remem- 
bered the  Shinto  oracle  that  the  Japanese  are  fond 
of  repeating.  “When  the  sky  is  clear  and  the  wind 
hums  in  the  fir  trees,  ’tis  the  heart  of  a god  who 
thus  reveals  himself.”  This  may  be  Shinto,  that 
ethnological  religious  patriotism,  which  at  present 
supports  16,000  Shrines  and  15,000  ministrants  in 
Japan — it  may  be  pantheism  more  or  less  prevalent 
in  the  mental  make-up  of  every  Oriental — it  may 
be  sentiment,  Japanese  sentiment,  which  is  half 
mysticism  and  half  will ; it  is,  however,  not  the  senti- 
ment that  looks  dream-like  and  sighs  for  the  moon 
(this  boy  was  headed  for  military  service),  it  is  a 
sentiment  that  lives  near  those  mighty  impulses  that 
teach  the  Japanese  how  to  die  for  a principle,  and 
James  Russell  Lowell  once  said  that  such  death  was 
the  chief  test  of  religious  sincerity. 

An  educated  Japanese  will  quote  to  you  Schil- 
ler’s monistic  idea  of  the  Universe: 


326  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


There  are  moments  in  life  when  we  feel  like  pressing  to 
our  bosom  every  stone,  every  far  off  distant  star,  every 
■worm  and  every  conceivable  higher  spirit — to  embrace  the 
entire  Universe  like  our  loved  one.  . . . Then  does  the 
■whole  creation  melt  into  a personality. 

and  lie  will  add  that  in  such  high  spiritual  mood, 
Schiller  is  a Shintoist  at  his  best. 

Such  combination  of  religions  is  constantly  being 
exhibited  in  present  day  Japan.  I was  told  by 
Baron  Sakatani,  Mayor  of  Tokyo,  of  a “Concordia” 
recently  formed  in  that  city  composed  of  Shintoists, 
Confucianists,  Buddhists  and  Christians,  a meeting- 
place  of  religions,  a center  for  discussion,  for  mu- 
tual planning  regarding  the  best  things,  moral,  and 
religious  for  the  country;  but  when  I asked  him 
wdiich  men  were  Shintoists,  which  Confucianists, 
etc.,  I found  that  he  hesitated  and  had  considerable 
difficulty  in  separating  the  men  according  to  reli- 
gions, so  interwoven  had  the  ideas  of  the  four  reli- 
gious doctrines  become  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
educated  man.  I lived  in  many  Japanese  homes  and 
hotels  during  my  visits  to  this  country  and  found 
frequently,  near  by  the  Buddhist  Shrines,  a shelf 
which  contained  the  objects  of  the  Shinto  cult. 

Into  all  this  mingled  religious  current,  Christian- 
ity is  free  as  never  before  to  pour  its  life  giving 
forces.  Since  the  important  religious  conference 
called  by  Government  a few  years  ago,  when,  by  Im- 
perial order,  Buddhists,  Shintoists  and  Christians 
were  brought  together  to  discuss  the  moral  and  re- 
ligious needs  of  the  nation,  Christianity  has  been 
on  a different  basis,  as  far  as  the  attitude  of  many 
Japanese  is  concerned.  The  Western  faith  has  been 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  327 


dignified,  imperialized  so  to  speak,  and  in  a country 
where  the  sanction  of  the  Emperor  reaches  so  far 
and  is  so  compelling,  this  has  meant  much  for  the 
Christian  workers.  I find  a far  more  cordial  atti- 
tude toward  Christianity  at  present  than  existed  in 
Japan  five  years  ago.  There  is,  to  be  sure,  just  as 
strong  insistence  that  Christianity  or  any  other  re- 
ligion here  must  be  Japanized,  if  it  is  to  take  root. 
“We  are  against  your  organized  Christianity,  your 
doctrinal  and  dogmatic  theology  about  which  you 
yourselves  are  unable  to  agree,”  is  the  common  re- 
mark of  thoughtful  Japanese.  I found  the  Japa- 
nese students  spending  very  little  time  in  speculative 
religious  discussion  in  which  the  Indian  undergrad- 
uate so  greatly  delights.  But  these  men  do  want 
(and  I believe  the  men  of  mind  are  most  solicitous 
over  this  point)  the  vital  conviction,  the  impelling 
impulsive  enthusiasm,  the  ‘morality  touched  with 
emotion’  that  Western  religion  evinces,  despite  all 
of  its  weaknesses  and  dismal  failures.  “We  want,” 
said  Count  Okuma,  “a  life  force,  we  have  not  yet 
found  it  religiously.” 

Strong  bodies,  Christian  and  religious,  are  work- 
ing toward  this  end  for  Japan.  The  Christian  mis- 
sionaries are  laboring  with  extraordinary  wisdom 
and  intelligence,  with  a breadth  of  mind  and  humil- 
ity not  excelled  elsewhere  in  the  East.  The  Japan 
Peace  Society,  embracing  some  of  the  best  Christian 
Japanese  as  well  as  many  of  the  leading  statesmen, 
now  numbers  one  thousand  members  and  its  socie- 
ties are  rapidly  increasing.  The  Christians,  foreign 
and  native,  are  planning  the  foundation  of  a great 
Christian  University  for  the  country  which  will  in- 


328  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


terpret  modern  Christianity  in  the  terms  of  the 
needs  of  modern  Japan.  The  student  Christian  As- 
sociations are  justly  gaining  in  influence  and  pres- 
tige through  the  personnel  of  their  workers  and  the 
practical  unsectarian  character  of  their  activities. 

Largely  through  the  influence  of  the  efficient  sec- 
retaries and  the  fine  building  equipment  of  this 
order,  I am  told  that  at  least  2,500  Japanese  stu- 
dent youth  are  studying  the  Bible  in  English.  A 
significant  event  occurred  recently  upon  the  campus 
of  Waseda  University,  when  1,200  English  Bibles 
were  purchased  by  the  students. 

It  is  strategic  statesmanship  to  thus  study  and  to 
serve  with  religious  zeal  the  student  life  of  Japan, 
for  in  this  country,  forces  and  authority  begin  at 
the  top  and  filter  down  to  the  people,  and  not  as  in 
the  West,  working  as  leaven  in  the  masses.  To  say 
that  this  Christian  “life  force”  in  some  properly 
and  sensibly  adapted  form  is  needed  by  the  Japa- 
nese students,  especially  needed  by  those  thirty  thou- 
sand undergraduates,  scattered  without  surveillance 
among  the  cheap  boarding  houses  of  Tokyo,  is  a 
truism;  a fact  that  I have  not  yet  found  Japanese 
of  any  or  no  faith  denying.  A body  of  youth,  im- 
pressionable to  a marvelous  degree,  who  have  not 
been  taught  the  sense  of  sin,  or  that  the  sharing  of 
the  multitudinous  vice  of  the  Yoshiwara  was  incon- 
sistent with  uprightness  of  character;  whose  teach- 
ers, and  even  indeed  whose  fathers  have  frequently 
opened  the  doors  to  practises  that  Christian  princi- 
ples forbid  its  adherents;  a body  of  young  men  en- 
dowed with  such  magnificent  promise,  laden  with 
such  inevitable  future  responsibilities  for  national 
leadership,  and  environed  by  such  subtle  moral  dis- 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  YOUNG  JAPAN  329 


tractions,  require  indeed,  a life  force,  a something 
“eternally  worth  while,”  stronger  to  guide  and  to 
hold  than  the  combined  Eastern  religions  have  as 
yet  shown  themselves  capable  of  furnishing. 


XXII 


Can  the  Orient  Be  Modernized 

THE  majority  of  the  human  race  dwells  in  Asia, 
the  largest  of  the  continents.  Asia  is  numer- 
ically tremendous  with  her  nine  hundred  millions  of 
population,  four  times  the  population  of  Europe, 
forty-one  times  the  size  of  France  and  the  sphere  of 
activity  of  more  than  half  the  population  of  the 
globe.  Although  Asia  has  never  been  known  as  con- 
taining warrior  races,  it  is  conservatively  estimated 
that  she  can  muster  one  hundred  millions  of  fighting 
men,  while  the  warrior  nations  of  India  alone  out- 
number those  of  the  combined  nations  who  speak 
English. 

The  strategic  significance  in  the  history  and  trade 
of  nations  of  the  Asiatic  races,  is  not  generally  real- 
ized. Asia’s  struggle  with  Europe  has  lasted  two 
thousand  years  and  has  been  the  binding  thread  of 
history;  her  trade  with  Europe  has  been  the  founda- 
tion of  commerce ; her  philosophic  thought  has  been 
the  basis  of  all  Western  religion,  and  the  charm  and 
the  spell  of  her  antipodal  customs  have  been  the 
wonder  of  every  Occidental  student  or  traveler. 

In  spite  of  these  facts,  it  is  notable  that  the  fusion 
of  races,  Asiatic  and  European,  has  never  occurred ; 
the  great  continent  of  Asia  has  never  vitally  asso- 
ciated its  creeds  and  customs  with  those  of  the  West ; 
its  currents  of  thought,  like  its  streams  of  blood, 

have  not  flowed  together  to  any  considerable  extent 

330 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  331 


in  a common  consanguinity  with  those  of  the  Occi- 
dent, and  many  of  the  most  profound  students  of 
the  Orient  believe,  that  in  the  deepest  sense,  there 
never  will  exist  absolute  comity  between  the  Asiatic 
and  the  European  or  American.  Meredith  Town- 
send in  presenting  conclusions  derived  from  a long 
life  devoted  to  the  study  of  relationships  between 
Asia  and  Europe  says : 

Asia,  though  it  yields  from  time  to  time  to  the  sudden  im- 
pact from  Europe  as  water  yields  to  a ship,  always  flows 
back  after  a ripple  more  or  less  drawn  out,  without  having 
been  apparently  affected. 

As  one  travels  from  country  to  country  among 
those  people  who  profess  as  religions  the  creed  of 
Islam,  of  Buddha,  Brahma,  Confucius,  Zoroaster 
or  Shinto,  realizing  meanwhile  the  seemingly  inex- 
haustible force  of  these  faiths  to  grip  and  control 
Orientals,  he  also  realizes  how  little  these  vast  reli- 
gions appeal  to  the  Western  mind,  and  how  they 
seem  to  be  at  home  in  the  tropical  rather  than  in  the 
temperate  zones. 

Let  the  foreigner  come  into  contact  with  the  East- 
ern mind  in  matters  of  trade,  let  him  try  to  match 
his  intuitive  processes  in  diplomacy  or  politics  with 
those  of  the  sons  of  the  Orient,  and  he  very  soon 
becomes  conscious  of  certain  inherent  and  incurable 
differences,  inevitably  separating  him  mentally  from 
his  Eastern  neighbor.  During  my  first  tour  in  the 
Orient  seven  years  ago,  I met  Occidentals  who 
seemed  to  be  well-nigh  certain  that  they  had  reached 
the  solution  of  certain  racial  and  international  prob- 
lems vexing  the  best  minds  of  Western  aliens  in 
Oriental  lands.  During  my  recent  tour  through 


332  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


Asia,  I have  met  again  some  of  these  same  persons 
who  tell  me  that  their  former  certainty  has  been 
dissipated  and  destroyed  with  further  years  of  con- 
tact with  Asiatics.  As  one  of  these  persons  sug- 
gested, a Westerner  can  only  be  sure  of  the 
conclusions  of  to-day;  to-morrow  is  likely  to  bring 
him  a new  set  of  strange  and  contradictory  experi- 
ences throwing  all  of  yesterday’s  conclusions  out  of 
balance. 

It  is  not  merely  a kindergarten  fancy  to  state  that 
Oriental  populations,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
Occidental  at  least,  are  walking  on  their  heads.  In 
almost  everything,  Asiatics  are  our  opposites. 
Whatever  you  say  about  anything  Eastern,  remem- 
ber that  from  some  other  angle  of  vision  the  con- 
trary could  be  truthfully  stated. 

A former  British  Ambassador  to  Constantinople 
wrote : 

When  you  wish  to  know  what  a Turkish  official  is  likely 
to  do,  first  consider  what  it  would  be  to  his  interest  to  do, 
next  what  any  other  man  would  do  under  similar  circum- 
stances, and  thirdly,  what  every  one  expects  him  to  do. 
When  you  have  ascertained  these,  you  are  so  far  advanced 
in  your  road  that  you  may  be  perfectly  certain  that  he  will 
not  adopt  any  of  these  courses. 

One  soon  discovers  that  his  Asiatic  impressions 
depend  largely  upon  the  people  whom  he  meets.  I 
made  one  trip  around  the  world  in  which  I met 
largely  Protestant  and  Catholic  missionaries,  Eu- 
ropean and  American,  and  talked  and  lived  with  Eu- 
ropean officials  and  Western  men  of  business.  As 
my  conclusions,  drawn  from  this  experience,  coin- 
cided in  general  with  many  books  which  I had  read 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  333 


upon  travel  and  official  history  written  by  Europe- 
ans, and  the  treatises  and  reports  of  missionaries,  I 
somewhat  naturally  decided  that  my  point  of  view 
was  in  general  a correct  one,  relative  to  the  character 
and  progress  of  Asiatic  peoples. 

As  a balance  to  these  impressions  during  the  last 
year  and  a half,  I have  traveled  and  lived  almost 
exclusively  with  the  native  peoples  of  North  Africa, 
Egypt  (and  Egypt  is  peculiarly  Oriental),  India, 
Burma,  the  Malay  States,  China,  Japan,  and  have 
had  also  some  intimate  associations  with  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  Philippines  and  the  islands  of  the  south- 
ern seas.  To  my  surprise  and  often  to  my  puzzled 
bewilderment,  I found  myself  inevitably  drawn  to 
conclusions  quite  different  from  those  I had  previ- 
ously formed. 

While  I have  never  met  with  more  lavish  hospital- 
ity or  more  intelligent  penetration  or  more  decided 
tendencies  of  social,  religious,  and  political  convic- 
tions than  those  encountered  among  these  Asiatic 
folk,  I have  been  repeatedly  and  constantly  aware 
of  something  radically  distinct,  something  intangibly 
and  irremediably  different  from  that  which  my 
Western  birth,  education,  and  environment  have 
given  me.  I have  felt  that,  even  if  I had  accepted 
the  creed  of  the  Moslem  or  the  Hindu  or  the  Confu- 
cianist,  this  harrier  would  not  have  been  removed. 

The  sense  has  not  always  been  present,  to  be  sure. 
At  times  one  seems  to  forget  entirely  his  geograph- 
ical and  racial  partitions  in  converse  with  men  of 
light  and  leading  who  are  as  fully  acquainted  with 
the  history  and  movements  of  nations,  as  those  of 
the  highly  educated  classes  of  the  West.  But  when 
one  follows  these  same  congenial  and  seemingly 


334  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


modern  Asiatics  into  their  homes  or  to  their  places 
of  worship,  or  comes  upon  them  suddenly  when  they 
are  off  guard,  surrounded  by  their  own  people  or 
friends,  this  mysterious  lack  of  comity  again  arises. 

One  finds  himself  asking : Can  Asia  ever  become 
really  modernized?  Is  there  not  some  inherent  dis- 
similarity between  the  West  and  the  East  which  for- 
ever forbids  the  one  permanently  to  mis  with  or  to 
conquer  the  other?  Can  the  training  in  the  arts  and 
the  sciences  of  the  West  cure  these  prejudices  of 
color  and  creed,  these  natural  and  temperamental 
incongruities ; or  has  Providence  rooted  deeply  and 
inextricably  distinct  laws  of  the  mind  and  the  spirit 
in  these  truly  distinct  continents,  so  deeply,  so  in- 
extricably that  all  human  effort  will  appeal  in  vain 
for  their  real  union? 

National  and  racial  contrasts  are  among  the  most 
real  things  one  feels  as  he  delves  into  the  life  and 
history  of  the  Asiatics. 

The  artistic  ability  of  the  Oriental  is  unques- 
tioned. Asiatics  have  built  the  Taj  and  the  Alham- 
bra, they  have  constructed  the  marvelous  temples 
of  Buddhism,  and  they  have  built  the  graceful  tow- 
ers and  the  temples  and  mosques  of  Cairo  and 
Benares ; they  are  responsible  for  the  towers  of  Nan- 
king and  the  palaces  of  the  Shoguns.  Chinese  por- 
celain is  the  best  of  its  kind  in  the  world,  and  the 
literary  and  the  artistic  ability  of  the  Tagores  of 
India  can  be  duplicated  in  many  a circle  of  India 
and  Japan.  One  will  not  find  in  Western  lands  the 
equal  of  such  work  as  the  Damascus  blade,  the  gold 
chains  of  Trichinopoly,  or  the  black-wood  carving 
of  the  Middle  Kingdom. 

Yet  in  the  conquest  of  nature,  Asia  is  behind  Eu- 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  335 


rope  and  Western  nations.  Living  for  centuries 
above  great  mines  of  iron,  coal,  tin,  and  platinum, 
she  has  been  content  to  shiver  about  her  tiny 
braziers  or  her  fires  of  cowdung,  to  plow  with 
crooked  sticks,  to  use  gourds  for  carrying  recep- 
tacles and  to  make  her  homes  in  temporary  dwellings 
of  mud  and  straw.  In  the  science  of  medicine,  in 
machinery,  in  scientific  discovery,  and  in  the  con- 
quering of  natural  resources  generally,  Asia  for  gen- 
erations has  been  tried  in  the  balance  and  has  been 
found  wanting. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  morals  also,  the  Asiatic 
is  different  from  the  European  and,  from  the  latter’s 
point  of  view,  is  unadvanced.  He  is  a creature  of 
superstition.  The  “evil  eye”  of  Egypt  has  a thou- 
sand counterparts  in  a thousand  Asiatic  com- 
munities. The  Oriental  is  not  moral  in  the  sense 
known  in  the  West.  He  practises  falsehood,  and 
often  sees  no  evil  in  so  doing,  save  as  falsehood  is 
objectless  or  unsuccessful. 

He  is  more  truly  a hero  worshiper  than  the  West- 
erner. Confucius,  who  did  not  claim  to  be  a 
prophet,  has  molded  the  thought  of  vaster  popula- 
tions than  any  other,  save  that  of  the  Oriental,  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  while  the  name  of  Mahomet  is  a com- 
pelling idea  to  two  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of 
the  earth’s  inhabitants. 

Asia,  moreover,  differs  from  Europe  in  being  a 
land  of  contented  acquiescence  rather  than  one  of 
aggressive  acquisition.  Despite  hunger  and  famine 
and  pestilence  and  sword,  Asia  has  pursued  her  way 
unchangingly  until  the  present,  indifferent  alike  to 
misfortune,  wars,  and  death. 

Save  in  astronomy,  the  East  has  made  small  con- 


336  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


tribution  to  science.  She  has  produced  no  great  his- 
torians, and  she  has  few  great  travelers  and 
investigators,  and  is  accustomed  to  give  small  cre- 
dence to  the  accounts  of  tourists  relative  to  condi- 
tions in  foreign  lands. 

But  as  the  originators  of  philosophy  regarding 
relations  between  the  seen  and  the  unseen  world,  the 
whole  earth  has  gone  to  school  to  Asia.  "Whence? 
Whither?  Why?  These  are  the  questions  which 
have  been  the  subject  matter  of  Asia’s  deepest 
thought.  She  has  rested  her  great  religions  like 
Hinduism  and  Buddhism  upon  the  deep  philosophies 
of  the  mind  and  spirit. 

In  the  doctrine  of  reincarnation,  Asiatic  religion 
has  attacked  and  solved  for  itself,  at  least,  the  most 
vexing  problem  of  the  world,  the  problem  of  the 
origin  and  reason  of  evil,  and  the  apparent  uneven 
justice  in  the  world  presided  over  by  a just  God, 
the  problem  that  no  Western  race  has  satisfactorily 
settled  for  the  majority  of  its  adherents. 

To  the  Westerner,  this  doctrine  is  faulty  in  many 
of  its  phases;  it  is  difficult  to  secure  adequate  evi- 
dence and  the  man  of  the  West  demands  objective 
as  well  as  subjective  evidence  for  his  truth.  Never- 
theless, the  faith  has  been  the  means  of  saving  mil- 
lions of  Asiatics  from  irreligion  and  the  atheism 
which  at  various  times  has  spread  over  Europe. 
Who  can,  with  honesty,  utterly  deride  a creed  that 
acts  as  a bridge  from  doubt  to  faith  for  millions, 
even  though  the  creed  may  seem  at  times  a tissue  of 
superstitions  and  far  from  perfect  in  its  working? 

The  Moslem,  while  he  does  not  accept  the  theory 
of  incarnation,  finds  for  himself  an  adequate  expla- 
nation of  the  evil  of  the  universe  in  the  idea  that 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  337 


“Allah  wills.’ ’ Fatalistic  it  may  seem,  but  it  has 
held  the  faithful  with  a mighty  grip,  defying  all  at- 
tempts at  conversion,  and  has  made  Islam  the  “mis- 
sionaries’ despair.” 

The  weakness  of  the  Asiatic’s  religion,  lies  in  his 
lack  of  emphasis  upon  ethics  and  social  responsibil- 
ity. He  cares  little,  in  fact,  for  the  great  thought 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  He  is  strictly  a reli- 
gious individualist.  Outside  of  his  family  or  clan 
or  caste  into  which  he  is  religiously  hound,  he  has 
little  appreciation  of  an  obligation  to  his  neighbor. 
It  is  the  absence  of  good  Samaritanism  that  has 
caused  Asia  untold  conflicts,  murders,  wars,  and 
turmoil.  Although  we  may  say  that  the  West  has 
not  lived  up  to  the  second  great  commandment,  we 
must  also  add  that  the  West  believes  that  it  ought 
to  live  up  to  it,  while  the  East  disregards  it  or 
treats  it  with  contempt. 

The  fifth  commandment,  however,  is  obeyed  in 
Asia  as  in  no  other  part  of  the  earth,  the  devotion 
of  son  to  father  being  a kind  of  unwritten  law  in- 
stinctive in  the  Oriental’s  thought  and  heredity. 
Polygamy,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  considered 
adultery,  the  Moslem  sanctioning  it  and  the  Hindu 
allowing  it  in  cases  when  the  first  wife  is  childless. 
Asiatics  are  also  free  from  that  gnawing  and  baneful 
covetousness  of  the  West  through  their  beliefs  in 
the  adjustments  of  society  by  a wise  Providence. 

Although  the  Asiatic  is  accustomed  to  absolute 
authority  and  bows  to  the  will  of  a sovereign,  as  to  a 
divine  mandate,  who  may  with  impunity  inflict 
death  upon  him,  he  has  resisted  for  centuries  the 
encroachments  of  the  West.  Without  being  re- 
nowned as  a marshaler  of  armies,  Asia  drove  Rome 


338  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


from  her  Persian  borders,  and  Alexander  with  his 
matchless  political  insight,  coveting  the  disintegra- 
tion of  the  Asiatic  peoples,  only  succeeded  in  found- 
ing- a few  Greek  dynasties  within  Asiatic  limits,  and 
one  will  search  in  vain  in  Asia  to-day  for  any  con- 
siderable Greek  influence. 

England  has  made  deeper  impress  in  Oriental 
Egypt  and  in  India,  the  flower  of  the  British  Em- 
pire, than  has  any  other  European  nation.  But  if 
England  should  leave  the  East  to-morrow,  her  im- 
pression of  twenty-five  colonizing  years  would 
hardly  be  deeper  than  the  externals  of  modern  civil- 
ization. In  that  part  of  Oriental  thought  and  life, 
which  to  the  Easterner  is  really  the  life — Religion — 
England  has  said:  “Hands  off!”  and  in  this  real  life 
of  Asia,  she  has  attempted  and  has  accomplished 
little  or  no  change.  Asia  is  not  an  aggressive  con- 
queror, but  by  her  power  of  passive  resistance, 
springing  out  of  her  conviction  of  the  difference  of 
permanent  ideals  between  herself  and  the  West,  she 
has  proved  a tremendous  ability  to  reject  her  con- 
querors and  to  survive  them.  Her  spirit  has  been 
not  unlike  that  of  Socrates  who  could  drink  the  hem- 
lock which  would  destroy  his  body  and  murmur 
triumphantly:  “You  can  have  my  soul  if  you  can 

catch  me.”  The  West  has  never  captured  the  soul 
of  the  East,  and  one  doubts  that  she  ever  will. 

From  700  to  1757,  a thousand  years  and  more,  Asia 
was  supremely  Asiatic  save  for  a small  raid  upon 
her  borders  by  the  Crusaders.  Although  it  would 
seem  that  Great  Britain  and  Russia  are  forming 
new  precedents  of  control  in  Asia,  a close  scrutiny 
of  the  facts  reveal  with  what  difficulty  this  control 
is  being  preserved.  Lord  Kitchener  was  rushed  to 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  339 


Egypt  to  prevent  imminent  disaffection  and  dis- 
aster, and  it  is  generally  believed  that  only  the  pres- 
ence of  this  modern  Pharaoh  with  his  soldier’s  hand 
of  iron,  is  to-day  preserving  anything  like  quiet  in 
the  land  of  the  Nile.  The  frequent  recurrence  of 
bomb  throwing  and  assassinations  in  India,  give  an 
inkling  of  what  is  seething  below  the  surface  where 
people  are  being  ruled  by  an  alien  race.  I was  re- 
peatedly told  by  English  officials  that  a more  exten- 
sive and  careful  secret  service  was  now  in  vogue 
than  ever  before  had  been  known  in  this  land. 

“You  never  know  what  is  going  to  happen  here,” 
said  a keen  Deputy  Commissioner  in  the  Central 
Provinces,  a man  who  mixed  with  thousands  of 
natives  every  month. 

The  Sepoy  Rebellion  of  1857  is  always  a shadow 
in  the  back  of  the  Tommy  Atkins’  mind,  and  its 
renewal  is  by  no  means  a fanciful  possibility.  “All 
is  quiet,”  says  the  home  Government — but  let  a dis- 
interested investigator  travel  and  live  in  the  native 
states  of  India,  which  compose  such  an  influential 
part  of  India,  that  in  the  Sepoy  Rebellion  the  loyalty 
of  one  State  alone,  Hyderabad,  saved  India  for  Brit- 
ain, and  what  does  he  find?  To  be  sure,  outwardly 
all  is  calm  and  you  will  frequently  find  all  kinds  of 
meetings  of  memorial  and  appreciation  to  His  Ex- 
cellency, the  Viceroy,  and  in  public  a marked  rev- 
erence on  the  part  of  the  Indian  towards  his  British 
Raj.  But  when  you  meet  the  native  in  the  privacy 
of  his  own  home,  if  you  are  fortunate  enough  to 
induce  him  to  break  through  the  barrier  of  language 
and  nationality,  you  will  find,  almost  invariably, 
something  more  akin  to  hate  than  to  love  for  his 
British  overlords.  ‘ ‘ Do  you  know,  I can  hardly  buy 


340  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


a pen  or  a sword  for  myself,”  said  a vexed  native 
Prince,  “without  asking  the  Resident  for  permis- 
sion. ’ ’ 

The  attitude  of  mind  is  not  unlike  that  of  Tewfik 
Pasha,  who,  in  the  early  days  of  the  English  occu- 
pation of  Egypt,  while  watching  a review  of  British 
troops  said  to  one  of  his  ministers:  “Do  you  sup- 

pose I like  this?  I tell  you  I never  see  an  English 
sentinel  in  my  streets  without  longing  to  jump  out 
of  my  carriage  and  strangle  him  with  my  own 
hands.” 

England  has  indeed  been  engaged  in  a great  un- 
dertaking, and  the  result  is  becoming  evident  in  a 
new  material  India  and  Egypt.  But  a people  is  not 
changed  at  heart  by  means  of  mechanical  devices, 
whether  they  are  railroads  or  irrigation  or  Western 
buildings.  As  a nation  thinketh  in  its  heart,  so 
is  that  nation.  As  Matthew  Arnold  accurately  has 
said: 

By  the  soul  only 

The  nation  shall  be  great  and  free. 

For  the  last  year  or  two,  we  have  been  optimistic- 
ally stating  our  beliefs  in  a new  China.  Behold  a 
new  Republic  in  an  old  Empire ! Sweeping  changes 
in  every  department  of  her  life,  young  men  in  Eu- 
ropean bowlers  and  frock  coats,  Chinese  women 
with  unbound  feet  becoming  interested  in  Western 
dressmaking  and  society,  a new  constitution  and  a 
new  set  of  politicians,  closely  resembling  those  made 
in  America!  In  place  of  the  old  Literati  examina- 
tion stalls,  modern  school  buildings,  like  those  found 
in  Europe  and  the  United  States,  and  the  new 
President  of  the  Republic  himself,  although  a Con- 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  341 


fucianist,  appointing  a day  of  prayer  for  China, 
asking  especially  the  supplications  of  the  Christians 
for  the  new  Republic.  We  read  articles  and  hear 
speeches  in  adoration  of  H.  E.  Sun  Yat  Sen,  the 
Cantonese  Doctor  and  provisional  President  and 
arch-theorist.  We  hear  him  called  a voice  in  the 
heathen  wilderness  and  heralded,  especially  in  the 
West,  as  a kind  of  John  the  Baptist  in  the  new 
China.  I was  in  China  shortly  after  Doctor  Sun 
stated,  “that  the  new  Republic  is  the  formal  decla- 
ration of  the  will  of  the  Chinese  people.”  He  told 
me  of  his  plans  for  trunk  line  railroads,  bringing  to- 
gether the  vast  areas  of  this  old  awakened  land. 
The  dragon  throne  seemed  rocking  to  its  fall,  the 
collapse  of  Manchu  and  Literati,  the  dissolving  of 
Confucianism  and  the  customs  of  centuries  all  pass- 
ing as  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 

Yet  those  who  knew  China  and  who  were  ac- 
quainted with  the  treachery,  the  rapine,  the  piracy 
on  the  Kwang  Tung  coast,  the  assassinations  and 
ineffectual  delays  of  the  new  Parliament,  those  who 
came  in  daily  contact  with  these  half  Occidentalized 
young  politicians,  realized  the  artificiality  of  such 
conquests  of  the  East  by  the  West.  They  knew  that 
China  had  been  accustomed  to  upheavals,  political 
as  well  as  social,  and  that  China  regarded  not  the 
change  of  clothes  nor  the  vicissitudes  of  rulers,  as 
she  went  on  unheedingly  throughout  her  vast  se- 
cluded provinces,  engrossed  with  the  all-important 
and  eternal  question  of  daily  rice.  He  who  knows 
China  appreciates  that  a nation,  which  has  seen, 
unmoved,  a Taiping  Rebellion,  devastating  nine 
provinces  and  destroying  forty  millions  of  lives,  a 
country  which  underwent  four  famines  in  the  first 


342  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  costing  the  life  of 
forty-five  millions  of  Chinese,  is  not  easily  and 
rapidly  to  be  stirred  out  of  its  age-long  placidity  of 
habit  and  temper. 

One  keen  discerner  of  Chinese  life  has  said  that 
“the  problem  of  China  is  one  of  economics,  incur- 
able either  by  religious  teaching  or  by  legislative 
formula.”  In  the  shadow  of  all  this  uprising  and 
seeming  renaissance,  the  ground-work  of  rural,  an- 
cestor-worshiping Chinese  millions  is  inherently 
the  same,  as  it  would  seem,  yesterday,  to-day  and 
forever.  The  fact  is  becoming  more  and  more  evi- 
dent now  that  Yuan  Shi  Kai  has  dismissed  many  of 
his  self-governing  Republicans,  ignored  his  foreign 
Advisors  and  is  rapidly  becoming  everything,  save 
in  name,  that  age-long  China  has  expected  of  her 
rulers.  In  the  very  midst  of  the  most  optimistic 
signs  of  modernization,  I attended  reactionary  meet- 
ings of  the  Confucianist  societies  in  which  far-reach- 
ing plans  were  being  made  for  the  rehabilitation  of 
the  national  faith. 

Here,  as  in  India  and  Egypt,  one  finds  increas- 
ingly encouraging  signs  of  new  and  better  condi- 
tions wrought  by  modern  processes  of  thought  and 
scientific  and  social  machinery.  But  new  constitu- 
tions and  new  buildings  crumble  beneath  the  steady 
and  regular  motions  of  centuries  of  habits  and 
hereditary  thought.  China  may  take  on  the  glad 
garments  of  the  West,  she  may  assume  the  language 
of  the  present,  hut  her  thought  and  her  motives  rise 
out  of  a vast  repressive  past.  The  real  change  is 
amazingly  slow. 

One  then  is  driven  repeatedly  to  the  query,  what 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  343 


does  it  mean  to  modernize  Asia  and  who  is  capable 
for  so  gigantic  a task? 

Is  America  with  our  halting  attempts  at  repre- 
sentative government,  with  our  pipings  of  peace 
advocates,  drowned  by  the  roar  of  guns  and  armed 
conflicts  with  our  neighbors?  Torn  by  civil  strife 
between  employers  and  employed,  our  municipal 
governments  distracted  between  the  crimes  of  offi- 
cials and  the  threats  of  anarchism,  can  we  consis- 
tently elevate  the  Republican  idea  in  behalf  of  the 
Oriental?  While  over  all  our  life  in  the  West  is 
the  trail  of  luxury,  of  pleasure-seeking  and  utilita- 
rian self-hood,  shall  we  go  to  China  or  to  India  and 
have  compelling  power  with  a new  social  gospel? 

Shall  Europe  bathed  in  the  blood  of  her  brother 
nations,  with  her  continental  agnosticism  and 
socialism,  or  England  with  her  civil  strifes  and 
wars  with  her  own  women,  teach  the  Asiatic  peace 
and  the  secrets  of  higher  powers,  individual  or  na- 
tional ? 

We  cannot  but  ask  at  times  as  to  how  effective 
our  religious  message  may  be  to  Asia,  the  mother 
of  our  Western  spiritual  creeds.  When  the  keen 
Oriental  tells  us  that  our  religion  has  lost  the 
spontaneous  loyalty  and  glad  devotion  of  our 
thinking  classes,  that  our  forms  and  rituals  of  pro- 
fessional religion  are  being  upheld  principally  by 
women,  that  we  are  divided  into  a hundred  camps 
and  orders  of  faith,  while  outside  the  church,  men 
are  crowding  our  new  civilization  with  multifold 
movements  for  uplift,  social,  charitable,  and  phil- 
anthropic, with  all  their  evident  duplication  and 
often  with  the  lack  of  a deep  religious  purpose  — 


344  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


when  the  Oriental  points  out  in  answer  to  our  deri- 
sion of  his  Ganges  worship,  his  lepers  and  his  pov- 
erty, that  all  these  efforts  at  reform  in  America  are 
the  symptoms  of  distress  and  moral  and  physical 
failure  that  ought  to  have  been  prevented  by  the 
essential  religion  we  claim  to  represent,  what  an- 
swer shall  we  give? 

Do  we  expect  the  keen  eyed  scrutiny  of  the  Ori- 
ental to  overlook  the  real  results  of  a Christian  civ- 
ilization as  these  results  pass  through  his  domains 
and  are  hurled  before  his  eyes  in  unscrupulous  for- 
eign traders  who  laugh  at  his  sacred  things?  A 
member  of  a high  gentry  family  in  China  spent  an 
afternoon  in  telling  me  of  the  Bacchanalian  orgies 
of  Europeans  and  Americans  in  the  port  cities,  the 
trivial  example  of  tourists,  the  bickerings  and  di- 
visions of  rival  Western  faiths  and  the  restricted 
laws  of  immigration,  which  excluded  his  people 
from  America,  through  what  he  called  the  economic 
greed  of  the  United  States. 

Let  us  not  blame  our  missionaries,  if  we,  by  our 
works  make  it  too  hard  for  them  to  influence  the 
educated  Easterner  to  accept  our  faith.  Let  us  not 
wonder  that  Asia  hesitates  to  displace  the  gods 
whose  protection  she  knows,  for  those  she  knows  not 
of,  especially  when  those  who  worship  them  seem 
to  deal  in  terms  of  gold  and  “things”  rather  than 
in  the  “fruits  of  the  spirit.” 

When  we  appreciate  that  no  American  can  hold 
land  in  Japan,  and  that  foreign  missionaries  have 
been  obliged  to  retire  into  honorary  and  advisory 
relation  to  the  new  self-guiding  and  new  self-sup- 
porting churches,  we  are  reminded  of  the  fact  that 
the  most  advanced  portions  of  the  Orient  have  not 


CAN  THE  ORIENT  BE  MODERNIZED  345 


learned  to  trust  the  Occident.  Indeed  the  distrust 
of  anything  in  method  or  practise  eminating  from 
America,  is  so  pronounced  and  general  in  Japan 
that  speakers  and  writers  on  education,  politics, 
and  religion  are  warned  to  eliminate  illustrations 
referring  to  Western  and  American  ways  of  doing 
things,  if  they  would  have  influence  with  their  hear- 
ers. There  was  a time  when  it  was  said  in  England 
that  no  Britisher  reads  an  American  book ; it  is  now 
a time  in  the  Flowery  Kingdom  when  one  might  say 
that  no  one  follows  an  American  method,  at  least 
not  without  rigid,  native  modifications. 

And  yet  the  Orient,  in  self-preservation  must  be 
modernized,  even  Westernized  to  a degree  at  least. 
For  her,  the  future  must  be  the  open  not  the  closed 
door  to  the  Occident  in  trade,  in  education,  in  so- 
cial, and  religious  influence.  The  next  quarter  of 
a century  promises  changes  and  advances,  eco- 
nomically, scientifically  and  politically,  that  may 
again  change  the  balance  of  commercial  and  per- 
haps territorial  conditions.  Modernity  has  already 
passed  through  the  portals  of  the  East  into  the  great 
Oriental  cities.  Although  this  present  day  leaven 
of  Westernization  has  as  yet  worked  but  a small 
way  into  Asia — as  the  political  unrest  of  Japan, 
the  most  advanced  Eastern  government  is  demon- 
strating— it  will  most  surely  continue  to  penetrate 
these  vast  continents  until  even  the  remotest  fel- 
laheen and  Thibetan  lama  shall  feel  its  irresist- 
ible impulse — and  the  Orient  will  be  changed — not 
suddenly — not  in  a generation — not  by  something 
revolutionary — nor  finally  by  the  aggressive  forces 
of  the  Westerner,  but  rather  by  the  rising  up  of  the 
awakened  Orient  herself  to  comprehend,  to  choose 


346  THE  MODERNIZING  OF  THE  ORIENT 


or  to  reject,  as  Japan  and  China  and  India  have  al- 
ready begun  to  do. 

“When  India  accepts  Christianity,”  said  an  as- 
tute American  missionary  educator,  “as  I believe 
she  will  accept  it  one  day,  it  will  be  a Christianity 
with  Hinduism,  not  Judaism,  for  her  Old  Testa- 
ment. ’ ’ 

In  other  words,  in  faith,  as  in  everything  else, 
permanent  Oriental  modernization  will  be  funda- 
mentally East  not  West.  The  renewal  of  the  Or- 
ient, for  her  own  good  and  for  the  health  of  the 
nations,  will  grow  out  of  the  awakened,  active  brain 
and  heart  and  hand  of  her  own  sons  and  daughters, 
and  its  roots  will  cling  about  the  rock  foundation 
jf  her  own  traditions,  her  own  timelessness,  her 
own  temperament,  and  her  own  religion.  The  Oc- 
cident can  help,  though  she  can  never  truly  mod- 
ernize the  Orient — but  the  Orient  can  and  will 
modernize  herself. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Algeria. 

Hill  Men  of  Kabylia,  14; 
French  Colonization,  15;  Scen- 
ery and  Inhabitants,  15; 

Kabyle  Life  and  Characteris- 
tics, 17-23;  Missions  in  Ka- 
bylia, 19-22;  Triple  Divorce, 

18;  Kous-kous,  17. 

Ambassador,  British  to  Constan- 
tinople, 332. 

Asia. 

Extent,  influence,  trade, 

330;  Possibility  of  Occidental 
Modernization,  330-346. 

Abbe  Hue,  237. 

Arab  vs.  Kabyle,  21. 

Arnold  at  Rugby,  63. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  quoted,  63,  340. 

Athletics  among  Indian  Stu- 
dents, 146. 

Afghan  Money  Lender,  171. 

Arya  Samaj,  135,  144-145. 

Arabic  Language,  a veil,  61. 

Bedouin. 

Hospitality,  70;  Kitchener’s 
Strategy,  71;  Business  men, 
72;  Blood  feuds,  73;  Religion, 

73,  74;  Modernizing,  75. 

Brahmo  Samaj,  99. 

Bilibid  Prison,  Manila,  150. 

Bengali  Described,  185. 

Bargaining  in  Asia,  181,  182. 

Bergson,  Prof.  Henri,  153. 

Borden,  William  A.,  Librarian 
Baroda,  128. 

Benson,  Arthur,  60. 

Baroda  Gaekwar,  93,  122. 

Besant,  Anna,  200. 

Buddhism. 

In  first  century,  81 ; In  In- 

349 


dia,  189;  In  Burmah,  213;  In 
Japan,  323;  Buddhism  and  the 
Priests,  216;  Buddhist  Kind- 
ness and  Beauty,  217;  Com- 
plexity of  Theology,  218; 
Buddhism  vs.  Christianity, 
219. 

Burmah. 

Romantic  and  Buddhist, 
206 ; Patriotism,  207 ; Area, 
population,  211;  Judson,  Mis- 
sionary, 206;  Labor  Problems, 
212;  King  Bagyidaw,  207; 
Thebaw,  King,  212;  Muzzling 
the  Press,  208;  Rangoon,  212; 
King  Mindon,  208;  Lord  Dal- 
housie  and  Burman  Treaty, 
208;  Visit  to  Burmese  Roy- 
alty, 209;  Shway  Yoe,  209; 
Freedom  of  Women,  211;  Cen- 
tennial Yankee,  210;  Bud- 
dhism and  Reform,  213;  Min- 
erals and  Petroleum,  211; 
Burmah  Awakening,  210; 
The  Monastery  Schools,  214- 
215;  Pongyis,  214;  Every  Man 
a Priest,  214. 

China. 

Consular  attitude,  228 ; 
Christian  Day  of  Prayer,  228; 
China  and  Education,  247 ; 
Village  Life,  243;  Canals  and 
Houseboats,  232-234 ; Foo- 
chow, 233;  Canal  Thieves, 
233;  Soochoo,  235;  Shops, 
235;  Colquhoun  on  Shopkeep- 
ers, 236;  Rural  Life,  241,  246; 
Nightfall  on  a Houseboat, 
245 ; China  in  the  Crucible, 
225. 


350 


INDEX 


Copts,  36. 

Coleridge  on  Education,  53. 

Commons,  Prof.  John  R.,  56. 

Commerce,  England  with  India, 
7. 

Dunlop,  Douglas,  30. 

Education. 

In  Kabylia,  difficulty  of,  20- 
21;  Egyptian  vs.  European  stu- 
dents, 26,  27 ; Agricultural, 
30-56;  Education,  Growth  in 
Egypt,  31 ; Egyptian  Girls,  47 ; 
British  influence  upon,  49-50; 
Utilitarian  51,  154;  Handicap 
of  English  Language,  52; 
Bedouin  “Kuttabs,”  74;  Text 
Books,  61 ; Training  Schools, 
61;  Education  vs.  Armament, 
62;  Personal  Contact,  64;  Ed- 
ucation in  Old  Hyderabad, 
110;  Nizam  College,  118; 
Bribery  of  Officials,  118; 
Gaekwar  of  Baroda’s  Com- 
pulsory Education,  125;  Ob- 
stacles in  India  Training,  127 ; 
Library  Work,  128;  Gurukula, 
and  Religious  Education,  135; 
Married  Students,  142;  Gov- 
ernment Universities  of  In- 
dia, 143;  Chinese  Education, 
247;  Japanese  Policies,  249; 
Influence  of  United  States  in 
China,  250-252;  Filipino  Edu- 
cation, 262;  Examinations  in 
Japan,  300,  10;  Japanese  Stu- 
dent Characteristics,  304; 
Note  Books,  309;  Japanese 
Teachers,  297,  298;  Teach- 

ableness of  Japanese  students, 
305;  Agricultural  Schools  of 
India,  162;  Athletics  in 
Japan,  312;  Christian  Uni- 
versity projected,  Japan,  327; 
Self  Support  of  Students,  311, 
312;  Colquhoun’s  Criticism  of 
Chinese  Education,  252;  Edu- 
cation and  Marriage,  155; 


Bergson’s  Definition,  153;  El 
Azhar  University,  8 ; Battle- 
ships and  Education,  11; 
Craze  to  learn  English,  7,  8. 

Egypt. 

English  Occupation,  29 ; 
Government  Difficulties,  33; 
Egyptian  Honesty,  33-34;  Old 
Egypt  in  Training,  24 ; Re- 
forms in  Egyptian  Education, 
44;  Under  a Modern  Bedouin 
Tent,  65 ; Utilitarian  Egypt, 
5,  6,  85. 

Emerson,  121. 

El  Basel,  Chief  of  Bedouins,  66. 

English. 

Attitude  toward  Egyptians, 
63;  English  Occupation,  76; 
England’s  Task,  64;  Attitude 
towards  Caste,  92;  Troops  and 
Civil  Service,  in  India,  109; 
Rule  in  Burmah,  212;  Influ- 
ence in  Asia,  338;  Attitude  of 
Asiatics,  339,  340. 

Fellaheen,  73. 

French  Colonization,  15-23. 

Ferguson,  Rev.  W.  L.,  Madras, 
170. 

Fitzgerald  of  Carlyle,  44. 

Farid  Bey,  Egyptian  National- 
ist, 63. 

Ganges  “Mother,”  134. 

Ganges,  fording  of,  141. 

Graft,  Indian,  140. 

Gurukula,  Regulations  of,  145- 
146. 

Gokhale,  Krishna,  93. 

Gordon,  Lady  Duff,  74. 

Gorky,  Maxim,  169. 

Hinduism. 

Dependence  on  Caste,  94 ; 
Growth  of  Missions,  95; 
Brahmins  and  Caste,  incident, 
97 ; Students  breaking  Caste, 
98;  Reform  Societies,  99;  So- 
cial Classes  Described,  101; 


INDEX 


351 


Ceremonials  at  Hardwar,  135; 
Arya  Samaj,  135;  Asceticism, 
197-199;  Universal  receptiv- 
ity, 188;  Mahabharata,  198; 
RSmfiyana,  198;  Hindu  Pan- 
theon, 188;  Attitude  of  Edu- 
cated Men,  200;  Hindu 
Priests,  189;  Hinduism  vs. 
Christianity,  190;  Lack  of 
Moral  Sensitiveness,  192; 
Vishnu,  194;  Hindu  Panthe- 
ism, 195;  Nirvana,  195;  Atti- 
tude toward  World,  196;  Kal- 
pas,  196;  Yogis,  197;  Upan- 
ishads,  198;  Benares,  Temples, 
Priests,  200;  “Time  Spirit,” 
influence  of,  201. 

Harem. 

Influence  on  Egypt,  48; 
Strictness  of  Bedouin,  inci- 
dent, 68;  In  Old  Hyderabad, 
incident,  112. 

Hydari,  A.,  Home-Secretary,  Hy- 
derabad, 118. 

Huxley,  Defines  Education,  192. 

Hearn,  Lafcadio,  318. 

Hare’s  “Walks  in  Rome,”  220. 

Hyderabad,  106. 

Hardwar,  133. 

India. 

Indelible  impression,  106 ; 
Modern  Tendencies,  6,  7 ; An- 
tiquity, 88;  Ignorance,  105; 
Changing  Social  Order,  91; 
Castes  defined  and  described, 
91-103;  Missionaries’  view, 
91;  Attitude  of  English,  92; 
Indian  Attitude  toward  Eng- 
land, 92;  Hindu  Students,  94- 
98 ; Moral  Restraint,  99 ; 
Population  and  Trade,  108; 
Reform  Sects,  99 ; Untouch- 
ables, 103;  Moving  Pictures 
at  Baroda,  128 ; Intellectual 
Curiosity,  129;  The  Muzzein 
Call  to  Prayer,  119;  Hardwar, 
133;  Sanskrit  taught,  143; 
Student  Life,  150;  Education 


in  Foreign  Tongue,  150;  So- 
cial difficulties,  151;  Lack  of 
Initiative,  152 ; Student’s 
Homes,  157 ; Handicaps  of  In- 
dian Youth,  158,  159;  Modern- 
ization in  Agriculture,  160; 
English  Gold  converted  into 
ornaments,  139;  Suttee  prac- 
tice of,  137 ; Life  in  the 
jungle,  133-139;  Savings 
Banks,  172. 

Japan. 

Characteristics  of  Young 
Japan,  304;  Tokyo,  Student 
Mecca,  302;  California  Dis- 
cussion, 293,  321;  In  the  Real 
Japan,  269;  Rural  Life,  270- 
27 1 ; Chinese  Students  in 
Tokyo,  inns,  271-273;  Imper- 
ial University,  297,  300-301; 
Street  Scenes,  273;  Education, 
spirit  of,  292-297 ; Fairs, 
273-276;  Feast  of  Dolls,  274- 
275;  Modern  Accomplishments 
in  Education,  297-298;  Mod- 
ern Education  for  Women, 
298;  Christianity  and  its  In- 
fluence, 322-323 ; College 
Friendships,  306;  Bathing  an 
Institution,  279,  282;  Fencing, 

314- 315;  Japanese  Food,  282; 
Theaters,  284-286;  Baseball, 

315- 316;  Simplicity  of  Life, 
287 ; Patriotism,  288-289 ; 
Religion,  322-329 ; Progress 
in  Modernization,  289-290; 
Jeudo,  313;  “The  Race  Ghost,” 
318;  Degree  Day,  319;  Peace 
Societies,  327;  Yo3hiwari,  328; 
Kudan  Hill,  324. 

Jews  in  Egypt,  36. 

Jowett  of  Baliol,  63. 

Jones,  Rev.  John  P.,  on  Caste 
System,  187. 

Kitchener,  5,  338;  55,  63,  83,  71. 

Koran,  74. 

Kanda,  Baron,  310. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  178,  212,  260. 


352 


INDEX 


Khamseen,  71. 

Kai,  Ho-kai,  Sir,  Founder  Uni- 
versity Hongkong,  249. 

Literacy  in  Egypt,  72. 

Lee,  C.  H.,  on  Chinese  Revolu- 
tion, 236. 

Li  Hung  Chang,  Love  of  Bargain, 
238. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  Advice  to  Ameri- 
cans, 230,  263. 

Leibnitz,  299. 

Longfellow,  quoted,  44. 

Locke,  John,  54. 

Lotze,  322. 

Missions  and  Missionaries. 

In  Kabylia,  19-22;  Their 
Work  and  Influence,  202-203; 
Difficulties,  203;  Influence  of 
Christianity,  22,  120;  Moslem 
Girls  in  Mission  Schools  in 
Egypt,  46 ; Secret  of  Mission- 
ary Success,  223;  Missionary 
Education  in  China,  247 ; Uni- 
versity Missions,  252;  Mis- 
sionaries in  Japan,  327. 

Micah,  quoted,  94. 

Mysore,  Advances  in  Education, 
*127. 

Maharatta,  102 

Miiller,  Prof.  Max.,  On  Indian 
Religion,  189. 

Mann,  Dr.  H.  H.,  of  Poona,  162. 

Moody,  D.  L.,  on  Character,  184. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  9. 

Mohammedanism. 

Numbers,  73;  Among  Be- 
douins, 74;  Modernizing  of,  75- 
76;  Prayers  in  a Business  Of- 
fice, 11;  In  Egypt,  36;  Prom- 
inent Characteristics,  37 ; Ko- 
ranic vs.  Bible  Study,  37 ; In 
India,  186;  Devoutness,  119. 

Moguls,  109. 

Mosque  Customs,  114. 

Native  States  of  India,  107. 


Nizam. 

Mohammedan  Ruler,  107 ; 
His  Privacy,  110;  Domestic 
Affairs  a Handicap  to  Educa- 
tion, 110;  A Feudal  Overlord, 
111. 

Naidu  Sarojini,  Indian  Poetess, 
179. 

Napoleon,  Louis,  226. 

Nitobe,  Inazo,  306. 

Napoleon,  122. 

Orient  vs.  Occident. 

General  Tendencies,  Chapter 
I;  Vastness,  78;  Fascination 
of  Orient,  88 ; Intrigue  and 
Diplomacy,  114;  East  vs. 
West,  77 ; Dividing  Factors, 
81-84;  Oriental  vs.  Occidental 
Rule,  130;  East  still  East, 
138;  Indian  Attitude,  143- 
144;  Pivotal  Questions,  147- 
148 ; Utilitarian  Tendencies, 
149;  Human  Reality  in  China, 
242;  Japan  Contrasts,  270; 
Europe  vs.  Asia,  79;  Modern- 
izing of  Orient,  330;  Two 
Points  of  view,  331-334;  Na- 
tional and  Racial  Contrasts, 
334-336;  Acquiescence  vs.  Ac- 
quisition, 235 ; Philosophy, 
336;  China  Modernized,  340. 

Okuma,  Count,  296,  322,  327,  12. 

Philippines. 

Colonization,  261;  American 
Dilemma,  268;  Copying  Ameri- 
can Vices,  256 ; Colonist’s 
Opinion,  266;  Country  Life, 
258-260;  Dewey,  Admiral, 
257;  Education,  262;  Filipino 
Expectations,  265,  266;  Indian 
vs.  Filipino,  267 ; Invest- 
ments, 263,  264;  Jones  Bill, 
256,  266;  Labor  Problems, 

254 ; Manila  Described,  258 ; 
Modernizing  Filipinos,  254 ; 
Moros,  260;  Political  Difficul- 
ties, 265,  267 ; Population  and 


INDEX 


353 


Area,  256-257;  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
262. 

Port  Said,  84. 

Police  System  in  India,  136. 

Politics  in  Asia,  116,  130. 

Petroleum  in  Burmah,  211. 

Religion. 

Tendencies,  11,  12;  Char- 
acteristics of  Eastern,  187 ; 
Indian  Conceptions  of  God, 
Personality,  82,  83;  Ascetics, 
168;  Sannyasis,  168;  Reli- 
gious Transformation  in  In- 
dia, 186;  Tendencies,  Japanese, 
322,  329;  Shintoism,  225;  Con- 
cordia of  Religions,  326;  Re- 
incarnation, 336;  Asiatic  Reli- 
gions, strength  and  weakness, 
336-337 ; Christianity  for  In- 
dia, 346;  Confucianism,  323; 
Theory  vs.  Practice,  213;  Reli- 
gion in  Burmah,  214. 

Ramabai,  Pundita,  95. 

Ruskin,  on  Bible,  41. 

Socrates,  338. 

St.  Mark’s  Square,  Venice,  80. 

Suffi  Proverb,  119. 

Sakatani,  Baron,  Mayor  of 
Tokyo,  326. 

Sladen,  Douglas,  58. 

Schiller,  326. 

Sun  Yat  Sen,  341,  225,  230. 


Shanghai,  226. 

Superstitions,  182. 

Street  Scenes  in  China,  238-241. 

Twefyk,  Pasha,  177,  340. 

Tennyson,  84,  92. 

Togo,  Admiral,  319. 

Twain,  Mark,  204,  219. 

Tokyo  Imperial  University,  11. 

Taiping  Rebellion,  341. 

Teachers  Needed,  58. 

Text  Books,  Arabic,  62. 

Women. 

In  Kabylia,  20;  Influence  of, 
22 ; Moslem  Girls  in  Mission 
Schools,  Egypt,  46;  Disregard 
of  Girl  Children,  127 ; Egyp- 
tian Women,  44;  Purdah 
Women,  115,  117;  Mohamme- 
dan Women,  Hyderabad,  111; 
Moslem  Widows,  113;  Hindu 
Women  and  Caste,  99;  Women 
Students,  China,  248. 

Wu  Ting  Fang,  226. 

White,  Frank  R.,  late  Director 
Ed.  Philippines,  262. 

Wells,  Sydney,  Egypt,  30. 

Watson,  William,  151. 

Wiley,  Harvey  W.,  56. 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  328,  263. 

Yuan,  Shi-kai,  342,  226,  230. 


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